I Can Kill You
by Morganel
Summary: After a mission a mysterious girl meets Clint on a rooftop. She wants answers to her powers. She surely can't be trusted, but Clint trusts her, Natasha doesn't, not right away. This girl can bring them closer together. Dr. Banner can give her the answers she needs, and in return she can give him something as well. Clintasha Bruce/OC all the Avengers. M later: warnings in AN.
1. Chapter 1

Clint isn't in Canada quite as much as he'd like to be. When European gang leaders aren't dirtying the water the country is a beautiful one. He can breathe up here, in the misty rain. The job is done and he'll be home soon. But for now he's content with the view before him.

A tiny shift in the gravel has him stiffening in the slightest. He hears a breath behind him, and before his heart can beat again he's swung around and had an arrow pointed at the intruder. A gasp breaks the quiet, pitched with a little squeak. His eyes widen and he frowns. The intruder is a young lady, looking emaciated in her too-big clothes. The bags under her eyes make what must be a pretty face much sallower, her eyes are large. _She thought she could sneak up on him._ Her hands are raised ever so slightly in surrender.

"I have to say, you're one of few people who has managed to sneak up on me." He says, the corners of her lips twitch in the slightest and her eyes light up a little.

"How'd you do it?" He asks, nodding at her to speak. She smirks.

"Not that hard, Hawkeye, this is the tallest condominium in the metropolis." She answers; her voice is low and slightly hoarse. She clears her throat. _This girl knows my alias...I wonder what else she knows._

"Clever, you'd think people would figure that out." He gives her that one. She reaches behind her back and he aims more steadily. In a split second he feels his arms lock in place and he can't move. The girl has her gaze concentrated on the bow and arrow as she pulls a folder file-folder from her back pocket.

"I'd rather you not shoot me, I'm not a threat." She says disappointment clear on her face.

"What are you playing at?" He asks, and she makes a face.

"Not playing any games. I need your help." She looks pointedly at him.

"Go on." He prods.

"You're an Avenger. I saw the footage from the invasion. You're a whole group so you must work for someone; I need to talk to whoever you work for." Against his better judgement he chuckles and that has her frowning more. His arms relax she steps back, holding his gaze. Movement to his left has him breaking eye contact as a train of gravel weave through the air they come to a halt in front of him he looks uncertain as to whether or not they'll explode. The girl lets out an irritated huff and the stones go flying to the other side of the roof.

"You're hurt." She says, and she's referring to the few cuts on his arms and forehead. He shrugs. His injuries start to tingle.

"What are you doing?" He demands hairs on the back of his neck standing up.

"Shush." She puts her hand up to him and his mouth shuts despite him not wanting it to. In an instant she lowers her hand.

"Look at your arm." She says, and there's so much sass in her stance he raises a brow. He looks at his arm, where there was blood and a nice cut a moment earlier, only remains a faint pink line.

"You can heal?" She shakes her head.

"Telekinetic Abilities," she corrects, "and up until three months ago I couldn't explain them. That's what the file is." She shakes it reminding him of his existence.

"And what can I do?"

"I need to talk to someone you work with, a specialist, a doctor, a scientist. Someone who can tell me why I can do what I do, because I can't make heads or tails of this file." She seems genuine, but so had a few other very skilled ladies he knows. _Those ladies had been trying to seduce you and take you hostage._ He chuckles internally at that, they'd _tried _to get him. This girl looked ill and scared.

"There anything else you can do?" He asks. She nods.

"I can sense brain waves, I have an eidetic memory, as far as I tell higher brain function and as you saw, telekinetic abilities, that's all, and I'd like it explained to me anyway possible. I don't like not understanding." Clint is quiet for a long moment. She looks about ready to drop from exhaustion.

"How old are you?" He asks.

"Twenty two." She replies, her voice leaks desperation. She looks younger in her current state.

"And what's your name?"

"Cadence Marie Holland." She says surely and strongly. He makes a decision and nods.

"Alright, Cadence, I'll take you to my boss and we'll see what can be done for you." She smiles fully for the first time in their conversation, it lights up her face. She nods.

"Come on. Rendezvous is in half an hour." She follows him silently from the roof, and if he's honest with himself he hasn't actually felt so much relief radiate from a person before.


	2. Chapter 2

Clint looks through the observatory window into the infirmary, his gaze is contemplative, face set in a frown. Natasha watches him for a moment at the door before entering, moving over to him and taking his face in her hands and running her thumb over the furrow in his brow. He snaps himself out of his stupor and offers her a fond smile.

"You were doing that face again." Natasha says sending him a side-long look before looking into the infirmary at the girl on the bed.

"I was thinking." He says sidling up next to her and leaning the bridge of his nose against her ear, inhaling her scent. A breath of a laugh escapes her, and she smiles a bit.

"You look so serious when you think." Her tone is fond but her features remain pristine stone as she looks through the observatory window.

"I was thinking about something serious." He replies, and then leans back to get a good look at her.

"Now you look serious, what's wrong, Tasha?" She frowns then meets his gaze.

"I...I don't like that she found you." She says, trying to state her discomfort clearly.

"You always chose the highest building and she figured that out." Clint nods, understanding her point of view.

"To be fair she told me she'd been researching for three months. And that she guessed where I'd be because of that research." She shakes her head.

"I still don't like it." She crosses her arms over her chest, eyes looking over Cadence, locking in every detail she can.

Cadence is out cold in the infirmary. Clint had made it clear that he'd bring her to his boss, but that certain protocols had to be met. She didn't argue one bit, and in fact she looked a million times better than she had on the roof top. The drugs knocked her out for the flight and she would be out for a little while longer, which was long enough to have run all the background checks and facial recognition possible. Clint had already contacted Fury. He wasn't pleased, and that was putting it lightly. He'd put an IV in her and she was slowly but surely looking less sallow.

"You're concerned for her." Natasha says. Not a question, she can see it in his face as he watches her sleep. He nods.

"I believe her." He admits. And _feels_ Natasha sigh, she does it internally.

"And I've got the world's most sexy assassin to kick my ass if I'm wrong." He says smiling, but it doesn't reach his eyes, he genuinely wants her to be good. She shoots him a mock glare.

"Let's just see if you're wrong before I kick your ass."

Director Fury walks in with Dr. Banner behind him.

"Barton, I don't like this." He says making his frustration _very_ clear.

"I realize that, sir. But this girl needs our help. She needs answers." Fury raises his eye brow at Clint who doesn't even bristle at the sharp look he's getting.

"Is that why you called me here?" Bruce asks moving toward the glass to peer at their guest.

"Banner, I want you to look at her file. She said she doesn't understand any of it." Clint says.

"Hey, hey, hey, who's in charge here? I am, Dr. Banner I don't want you to have any contact with this _guest_ until we figure out who she is, see if she's a security risk."

"I'll have the file then." Bruce says, and Fury groans, Clint hands him the file and he starts to read through it. Natasha picks up the tablet on the table in the corner.

"I've got birth records; Cadence Marie Holland, check. Age twenty-two, check. Born in Montreal Canada, interesting...And facial recog...has this girl outside Canada all of three times, including this time. New York when she was thirteen, Ireland, Scotland, and France—School Trip when she was seventeen, anything else was within Canada; several trips to a Charleston Lake, all under the age of ten, a trip to Prince Edward Island age nine, and Ottawa age fourteen." She reads the information robotically.

"I certainly don't think she's a threat." Bruce says looking up from the file.

"You haven't been trained to find holes in cover stories. I'm having it run through three agents for holes. Check family and friends." She taps the tablet a bit then puts it down.

"I think the only thing she did understand was that she was in a drug trial as an infant." Banner starts.

"It seems to have been a drug to...to keep the potential abilities that infants have."

"So a baby can charge my phone?" Fury asks sarcastically. Bruce shakes his head.

"No their brain capacity, a fresh brain, no limitations, that's the theory anyway, that limitations are 'psychosomatic' and as we grow older limitations are given to us that reduces almost all the brain capacity we had as infants." He's reading through the file avidly now. That is, until the monitor attached to Cadence starts going off.

"_What's going on?"_ They hear her say through the speaker. Her voice is scared and Banner puts the file on the table. She sits up and looks around the room. Her chest begins to rise and fall in quick uneven patterns.

"What wrong with her?" Fury asks, curious and skeptical.

"_Hawkeye?" _She calls, and a scared whine escapes her (still got the drugs in her system) and her hands come up her hair and bunch into the locks.

"She's having a panic attack that's what." Bruce says extracting himself from the three other agents and making towards the door.

"Dr. Banner what are you doing?" Fury calls, moving after him. Cadence has stopped yanking on her hair and looked around the room. She feels the wavelengths of four people in close proximity to her.

"Who's there? Can someone please talk to me?" She asks, her breathing is uneven and she's a little dizzy. She tries to bring her knees up to her chest but when she moves her arms the IV pulls and she hisses in pain. In an instant it's out and the small wound is closed. She gives a little start when the door unlocks and opens revealing a handsome scruffy man at the door.

"Hi there, Cadence right?" He asks coming in, his voice is soothing, and she nods. He comes over to her, and puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. The contact has her relaxing instantly and she wipes her eyes before any tears can escape.

"I'm Dr. Banner, do you remember how you got here?" She shakes her head. Three other agents arrive at the door; a scowling black man with an eye patch, a woman she recognizes as Black Widow and Hawkeye. The latter comes into the room while Mr. Scowls stays outside with a hand on his weapon and Black Widow observes quietly.

"Hawkeye." She smiles a bit, still groggy. "I found Hawkeye on a rooftop in Montreal and I asked him if he could help me, it took some convincing but he took me here. What the hell did you give me?" She asks rubbing her head, she shivers and the bleariness clears from her eyes.

"What did you just do?" Black Widow asks stepping in, a curious frown on her pretty face.

"I metabolized the rest of the drug so I wouldn't feel so groggy." Cadence replies, taking a great deal of comfort from Dr. Banner's warm hand on her shoulder.

"How come you didn't just do that when he doped you up the first time?" She asks arms folding in front of her. Cadence frowns, and Banner sees her displeasure.

"I want answers, so I'm not about to blow what little amount of trust I have with any of you. If the protocol is to drug me up so I don't know where I am I'll do it. I want to understand why I have these abilities." Her tone is sharp, frustrated, and Natasha nods. She may not trust her, but in that moment she respects her words.

"Alright." Fury looks as if he's going to regret what he's deciding.

"Bring her down to Stark's testing lab. I want a demonstration. And before that, we may as well introduce ourselves." Cadence regards the three agents with a mixture of curiosity and fear.

"Director Fury of S-H-E-I-L-D, this here is Agent Natasha Romanov, and you've met Agent Clint Barton already." He waves a hand dismissively at Barton and turns on his heels out of the infirmary. He says something into his com that everyone hears.

"JARVIS shade the windows, and tell Rogers and Stark to go down to the testing lab we have introductions to make. Oh and see if Miss Potts has some clothes she can lend our _guest._" JARVIS replies with a 'yes, Director Fury' and Natasha motions for Clint to follow her out. Clint turns to Bruce and Cadence.

"You're good here?" He asks, both for her sake and Banner's. They both nod.

"We'll be in observation until we go down for the demonstration." Natasha says.

"Alright." Pipes Cadence, with a bit of a shaky smile. The door closes. Neither says anything for a long moment.

"Tony Stark, Rogers..., Agent Romanov and Clint Barton; that's only four." She says looking up at Banner.

"Rogers, is Captain America." Banner says quickly, and she scrunches up her nose in a smile.

"Okay. You must the resident Doctor then." She watches his face as he does a simple physical on her. Checking her pulse and breathing.

"Something like that." He agrees with a hint of a smile gracing his face.

"Well if it's not that then what is it?" She asks, zeroing in on a fluff stuck in his hair. With a simple thought she brushed it out, and that has him stepping back and regarding her with an inquisitive look.

"That felt like you ran your hand through my hair." He said, morbidly fascinated by her ability. She grins.

"You had something in your hair." She says, giving him a half smile. He returns it.

"Show me something else." He says, and she looks around the room her eyes fall onto and white board and Banner watches fascinated as she makes the marker writer on the board. _Who are you, Dr. Banner? _It says, and he sighs shaking his head. He looks like he's about to answer when the door opens. It's Natasha with a handful of clothes.

"Tony would like to speak with you." She says to Banner, he nods and then looks to Cadence.

"See you downstairs." He offers a reassuring smile and she mirrors it. Natasha puts the clothes next to her on the bed.

"Knock when you're dressed." She says, and then Cadence is alone with the steady hum of six wavelengths.

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. This is her road to answers, it'll certainly be interesting.


	3. Chapter 3

Cadence judges the things in the lab earnestly. Quite a few of the things here are flammable and can explode, a few can shatter, there are guns, and chemicals. She wonders what kind of demonstration Fury wants. Out of the clothes she'd been brought she'd opted for the runners shorts and tank top.

"Alright, what should I do then?" She asks the group of six watching her. She hasn't yet been introduced to Tony Stark or Steve Rodgers, that'll be after this demonstration. Fury shrugs and before she can think his gun is out of his holster and he's fired two shots. The bullets drop and she disarms the gun, getting the clip out and the chamber cleared in less than five seconds. Tony whistles, but Fury isn't done, he takes out a second gun and fires off another shot toward a can of aerosol. A small explosion bursts to life inside what looks like a bubble, then the fire goes out and the damage disappears. She takes a deep breath.

"Please don't break my things, Fury." Tony requests, but Fury doesn't say anything. He holsters his gun and walks toward the chemical table at the back of the room. He pulls out something corrosive based on Stark and Dr. Banner's exclamations but she deals with it. He pours in out over his hand, but the liquid doesn't touch him, it floats away from him, and then he releases the bottle and she puts it back in and closes the lid.

Natasha is behind her suddenly moving in with a high kick. She's pushed back, leaving her kick to hit thin air. At the not so subtle buzz of incoming brainwaves fury face plants and invisible wall when he tries to rush her; Natasha sends a series of punches at her. Cadence surprises them by blocking and countering them before moving away from her.

"Fury don't touch that!" Stark shouts but it's too late. Three grenades are on the floor in front of her. Each explode, Cadence is knocked back a bit but the explosions are contained inside their own bubbles. Crimson drips from her nose, and she tries to focus on removing the oxygen from the fires. Two go out before there are more shots. She idly hears shouts of complaint from the peanut gallery. The third explosion is in its bubble when she feels the bullets on her side and ribs.

Time slows down for her and she stops the bullets from piercing her skin—bruises, she'll have bruises—and drops to the floor with a yelp. The fire disappears.

"That's enough!" Stark exclaims. "Clearly she's got skills, stop trying to blow up my house!"

And a quiet, "Come back in Banner, might need a Doctor."

She assesses her ribs, taking a deep breath—

Yup cracked. She groans, and closes her eyes to focus on the bone, feel the injury and—

A hand is on her arm. She opens her eyes. She's got Steve Rogers hovering over her with concern on his face. Doctor Banner follows suit—_he'd left?—_and also kneels at her side. She realizes the bullets made holes in her shirt before she'd stopped them. She takes short breaths.

"I need a moment." She gasps and closes her eyes again, pin-pointing the crack in her rib, making the healing process speed itself up, making the crack disappear.

"I'm alright." She says a whoosh of air escaping her; the two men help her to her feet. She brings her hand up to her nose to assess the bleeding; plenty of blood. She sees Stark and Clint speaking to Fury in the back rather rigidly. Natasha listens silently, arms crossed over her chest, the men aren't mad at her, she didn't go _overboard_ like Fury did. Cadence can't say she blames Fury for the enthusiastic methods, she had her heart stuck in her throat, but she had enjoyed the combat part.

"You were hit." Banner says and she nods.

"I stopped the bullets though." She says lifting up the tank to reveal her already dark bruises. Banner grimaces and Rogers lets out a hiss.

"Dammit Fury, you did a number on her." Rogers calls over to the quartet in the back. They all turn and frown, Clint marches over and once he sees her bruises, he turns to Fury.

"That was ridiculous. What if she hadn't been able to contain all of those explosions? We'd all be in deep shit right now. We're damn lucky Banner decided to remove himself from this environment. If Cadence hadn't been able to contain one of those blasts—"

"Don't talk in 'what if's, Barton, the girl got through it and I'm appeased. Dr. Banner you can examine her and run tests for her. I've got a few more checks to run, so until that time, she's not to be left unsupervised." He makes his way toward the door.

"Thank you." Cadence calls. He pauses, turning around slowly.

"That was impressive, Miss Holland." And he's gone. Stark grumbles something she doesn't catch.

"You shouldn't have thanked him." He says, handing her a face cloth for her nose, she accepts it with a nod and places the cloth over her nose. He extends a hand to her and the one that isn't bloody shakes it.

"Tony Stark. And that's the closest thing you'll get to an apology from him." She nods.

"Cadence Holland." She greets, voice muffled. She makes her nose stop bleeding and removes the blood from her person. She chucks the air born residue into a garbage bin in the corner.

"That's going to take some getting used to." Tony says, chuckling. Steve moves forward. Natasha grumbles to herself. "She's not staying." Clint nudges her and she shoots him a look.

"Steve Rogers. I certainly hope you get the answers you're looking for. And I'm glad you're alright." She smiles in response.

"Thanks." She says.

"Banner has work to do, go play with your tools and break a punching bag." Natasha shoos them out.

"Best of luck." Steve calls back, and Cadence waves, Clint comes over pats her on the shoulder.

"Sorry about that." He says, and he's genuine.

"I'm alright, I swear. And the combat was fun." She flashes him a grin. He doesn't look like he believes her.

"I promise, I'm fine." He decides to leave it at that.

"Okay. Banner, you can bring her upstairs for testing." Banner shakes his head.

"We're going to go to the gym. I'll need a Physical Chart." He says and Clint nods.

"I'll bring you one right away." He turns to Cadence.

"You had me fooled earlier." He says and she raises a brow at him.

"Your clothes. They made you look emaciated." Her mouth forms a perfect 'o' shape, then she looks a bit sheepish.

"I don't have any clothes that fit me properly. I've been learning how to control my telekinesis for a long time and only recently mastered using it to help me with building muscle." Because it's true underneath the baggy clothes, Cadence is all lean muscle, clean tone, and subtle abs.

"Well, later we'll get you some proper clothes." Clint says and Cadence smiles.

"Sure, sounds good." She, Clint and Banner walk toward the door.

"You know I'm twenty-two right?" She asks and they nod.

"Yeah? You told me and it was in your file." She makes a face.

"You all keep calling me 'girl'..." She looks at them, and Clint chuckles.

"You're the youngest by four years." Banner says amusement in his eyes. She sighs exaggeratedly.

Clint pats her shoulder. Banner opens the door to the gym and her eyes light up.

"Nice!" She says and walks right in. Bruce is about to follow, when Clint catches his arm.

"If there's anything—"

"_If_ there's anything, I'll call." He assures and Clint nods.

"You'll have the Physical Chart in a few minutes." Bruce walks into the gym a quiet laugh escaping him when he sees Cadence doing chin ups on the bars.

"You're not cheating, are you?" He asks and she shakes her head.

"I only cheated to help myself along, to get in shape, I don't need to cheat anymore." She grins and keeps going.

"Don't tire yourself out, we need to do a physical examination." He says reaching up with a little jump and grabs the bar, he hoists himself up and does three chin ups one after the other. His biceps strain slightly against his button down. She smirks and lets go dropping to the ground. She looks around and her eyes land on another piece of equipment. The tablet in the table beeps and Bruce goes over to it, pulling the piece of technology out of its slot and quirking his lips when the Physical Chart pops up on screen. He looks back over at Cadence who's upside down on the bars, looking thoughtfully at him.

"Why did you leave the demonstration?" She asks as she gets down. He sighs, running a hand through his hair.

"Potentially hostile environment." He says moving past her toward the shelves of bins across the room.

"Yeah, I think Fury was having fun blowing things up." She says, following him. He hands her a jump rope.

"It was just a precaution." He assures. "Now start jumping." He nods at the jump rope, she grins again and steps back.

"Prepare yourself, Dr. Banner. I aim to ace this." He snorts, and she laughs with him.

"This isn't a test, it's an assessment of your physical fitness." He says and she shrugs and starts jumping.

He watches her closely as she does the required exercises; each time he takes her pulse he puts it on the chart. He listens to her chest half an hour in, records the results and tells her what they're doing next. He takes a small red ball and tosses it to her. She catches it with her right hand, she tosses it back. He tosses it again and she catches in with her left. They do a few other reflex tests and then he needs her to get on the treadmill at a specific incline and speed.

He watches her run; smiles a bit at her determination, sees she's tired but that she won't quit. She's breathing hard, her chest rising and falling in exertion. He tells her to get off and she does, he takes her pulse, fingers over her neck, and he's glad with the results.

"You're done." He says and she lets out a whoosh of air before walking to the center of the room and lying on her back, still out of breath. She'd looked so dead when he saw her in the infirmary, now with such a flush on her face she looks much better. He saves the results on his domain and puts the tablet back in its slot. When he looks back at Cadence she's sitting up.

"I need a blood sample." He says, and she nods standing with ease. They walk to the door. She turns at the last moment and her eyes sweep the room. A brown baseball sized compilation of human muck floats in midair. Suddenly only a cloud of smoke remains in its place.

"It would be rude not to sanitize it." She says. He chuckles.

"If I were stuck on a desert island I'd bring you." He says casually.

"Oh yeah, why?" She says with a laugh.

"You could purify the water." He says and leads her toward the elevator. When they get back to the infirmary she sits on the bed she was on before. Bruce fishes through a small fridge and takes out a juice box, he puts it on the table and then moves to take out a needle.

"You ever done this before?" He asks, as he prepares the vial.

"I have." He moves to stand on her left side, hands her a ball to squeeze and meets her gaze to confirm that she's ready. She gives him a reassuring smile. She _could_ have done this her own way, but secretly she just wanted the excuse for him to touch her again. Her breath hitches in the slightest when he sticks her, and she watches coolly as her blood flows into the test tube.

"You alright?" He asks and she gives him a thumbs up with her right hand. When he removes the needle he hands her the juice box. She makes a face at it, remembering the 'youngest' comment from earlier and then proceeds to stick the straw in and take a sip. There's a knock at the door and Pepper sticks her head in.

"Hi Bruce." She greets cheerily, and looks at Cadence.

"You must be Cadence. I'm Pepper." She walks in a few steps and shakes her hand.

"Hi Pepper." She says with a smile.

"JARVIS took your measurements and is having some clothes sent here. It shouldn't be much longer." She notices the small holes in Cadence's shirt.

"What happened to my shirt?" She asks curious and a little concerned.

"Fury shot her." Bruce says, and Pepper grimaces.

"I stopped the bullets though—nobody took my measurements..." Cadence says thoroughly confused.

"He's an Artificial Intelligence Tony created for the building." She explains, as if on cue JARVIS speaks.

"_Miss Potts the clothes have arrived, where should they be sent?"_ Cadence's eyes go wide with surprise.

"That is weeeeird." She says and Pepper laughs.

"I thought so too. You get used to it." Bruce says.

"You don't have a room do you?" Pepper asks and Cadence shakes her head.

"JARVIS, have the clothes sent to the seventh guest room please."

"_Right away Miss Potts."_

"Well, you must be hungry. There's food in the kitchen. Want some?" Pepper asks and Cadence nods.

"I have to run some tests on your blood sample in my lab. I'll see you later, alright?" Bruce says and she shoves aside her slight feeling of disappointment.

"Sure." She nods and stands. "Thanks." She says before following Pepper out of the infirmary.

"No problem." He calls back. He looks down at the vial in his hand.

"What are you?" He wonders out loud, before leaving the room and making his way toward the stairs.

**Reviews make my day It's absolutely amazing the amount of "story alerts" I have on this. Thanks for reading.**


	4. Chapter 4

"She was alone with her for two hours!" Natasha snaps sharply face expertly masks the concern she'd had for her friend.

"That was hugely uncalled for Natasha!" Bruce snaps back. Most everyone in the room is rigid because of Banner's displeasure. Cadence has opted to sit on the floor against the wall out of everyone's way; her head is starting to throb.

"This is ridiculous! Really, Cadence has been nothing but friendly and gracious." Pepper insists. Tony stands a little closer to her, tightening his hold around her waist protectively.

"Fury said she can't be unsupervised." He says quietly and Pepper turns around brusquely.

"She was supervised—that makes it sounds like she's a kid by the way—she was with me the entire time! Nothing happened at all, it was a misunderstanding." Tony looks slightly guilty. He's only mentioning what Fury said because he'd had a bit of a scare on Pepper's behalf.

"Little kid, or undercover agent attempting to infiltrate this team." Natasha says and Clint who has been quiet until now gives her a pleading look.

"I think supervised means by someone who can defend themselves more easily, with all due respect, Miss Potts." Steve says from his spot leaned against the door frame.

"She had a knife pointing at Pepper, so I reacted how I saw fit." Natasha says deadpan.

"I don't blame you for your quick reaction, Nat, but she was helping Pepper make some food." Clint says, and Natasha sends him a disbelieving look in return.

"That's only what I've said a bunch of times!" Pepper groans exasperatedly.

"But really? Stabbing her through her hand? That certainly wasn't necessary." Banner interjects, jaw set, voice deadly serious.

"It had her immobilized. If she hadn't screamed none of us would be here." Natasha's voice has taken on an edge of irritation.

"It was a shriek of surprise." Cadence corrects unenthusiastically.

"And for the record, I get why you did it, but I _was_ helping Pepper cook, and cooking entails knives a lot of the time." She says mouth set in a thin line. She's still nursing her hand, even though she'd healed it as soon as the knife was no longer impaling her to the counter, it was the residual shock that had her cradling it. "Sorry about your face, by the way." She adds in the same cold tone. She's referring to the red cut across Natasha's brow from when Cadence had swung around, sending the knife along with her.

"I like her, she may be a giant security risk, but I like her, she's got zing." Tony says and Pepper rolls her eyes. Everyone jumps when a feral growl emits from Natasha. If looks could kill, it would be this one, and the assassin is glaring bloody daggers at the brunette on the floor. It takes Clint a second to realize why she's reacting this way. The cut is gone. He glances at Cadence whose eyes are as wide as everyone else's, pallor having drained from her pretty face when Natasha's glare landed on her.

"Don't. You. Dare. Use your mind tricks on me." She says hard and emotionlessly before turning on her heals and gliding out of the kitchen.

"Tasha!" Clint says, tone pleading her to see reason, he follows her. There's a smash and Steve chances a look into the room and moves away quickly with his face turning red.

"Don't touch me, Clint!" She exclaims and there's a bang.

"Tasha, come on!" Clint's voice is annoyed now and a strain of angry Russian leaves the woman's mouth before they fade away with his response in the same language. Bruce huffs out a breath before his eyes fall to Cadence. She'd brought her knees up to her chest and covered her head with her arms.

"She okay?" Steve asks, worry lacing his tone. Bruce is at her side right away, a hand on her arm.

"Cadence, what's wrong?" A muffled groan of pain escapes her.

"I have a headache." She says, lifting her head. Bruce frowns, her pupils are constricted and her eyes are blood shot, her face is contorted in a grimace.

"Is there a parade going on?" She asks pressing her hands into the sides of her head. She makes a pained whining sound when JARVIS answers that question.

"_There is a Parade going on three blocks from here, Miss Holland." _Bruce helps her up.

"The angry, I've never felt that kind of flash transition before." She mutters leaning slightly into Bruce, his heart stutters at her choice of words. Pepper moves to her other side. She shakes them off but they hover anyway, Tony and Steve not far behind.

"Sorry, sorry. Too many—too much static." She says pressing her palms into her eyes. A hiss of pain escapes her.

"Is there something we can do?" Pepper asks

"I could get you something for the pain?" Steve suggests. Cadence shakes her head.

"Can...Can I just go up to my room? Higher up's better, father from people." Her sentences are choppy at best. Tony pushes gently past Pepper and puts a guiding hand on Cadence's elbow.

"I'll take her to her room. G7, right?" Pepper nods, and Tony starts leading her out. As she leaves, Bruce's hand on her shoulder slides down her arm. She squeezes his hand faintly for a moment before the distance has her dropping her hand.

"Come on let's bring the Jedi to bed."

"Not funny." She grumbles.

"Call if her condition worsens." Bruce requests.

"Will do."

The elevator ride is quiet, and Tony watches with interest as Cadence's pain decreases as they climb higher. Her muscles relax and her breathing evens out, and she isn't trying to press her eyes into her skull anymore. By the time they reach her floor, she's just rubbing circles over her temples. Pepper had already shown Cadence her room; it was spacious and dim due to the tinted windows, with a big bed and a built in sound system. She walks over to the bed and belly flops onto it with a resounding groan of relief.

"How's the head?" He asks, she doesn't reply right away.

"From wanting to burst to the throbbing pain of a bad bruise." The duvet muffles her voice. Tony lets out a breath of a laugh.

"That's better?"

"Significant enough change." Comes the reply.

"Anything I can get you?" Again she doesn't reply right away. She rolls over, squinting.

"Can you hack into an IPod?" She asks, and he pulls out his little touch pad and asks for her email. She gives it to him.

"Tsk, tsk. You got most of these from the YouTube to mp3 didn't you?" He says shaking his head at the little screen.

"Can you save them here somehow?" She asks, and he nods, focusing on the tablet.

"I can do that and one up it all at once." He grins at her, he walks over to the wall unit and pulls out a larger tablet and hands it to her.

"I've put the music on a domain under your name, and got High Def versions of all of them for yah." He gives her a grin, she smiles in return.

"Thanks." She says taking the tablet and looking at the layout of all her music.

"I also added some music based of the types here, and created several playlists."

"I mean it, thanks." She swipes her finger over a playlist that looks good and the beautiful sound of an orchestra fills the room. A pleasured groan leaves her lips and she flops back onto the bed.

"Perfect." She compliments, throwing an arm over her eyes.

"Someone will come up later, with food." He says and she gives him a lazy thumbs up.

As Tony exits the elevator a few minutes later, he hears shouts from Natasha and Clint. He knows he'll probably bug them about this spat later, but for now, he'd rather they all take a chill pill and see what's going to happen with the Jedi Princess lounging upstairs. A door slams, and he thinks how he'd like that to happen _soon,_ before anyone gets badly hurt. He grabs a bag of blue berries and wanders into the den. Pepper's on the couch and he joins her, wrapping her in a backwards hug, and being glad that for this _particular_ situation, his beautiful tower isn't a warzone.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you everyone for the alerts and faves on this story, you've no idea how exciting it is for me. I really really want to let you know that Reviews make me so happy and motivate me to continue. I got a nice review today and it made my day :) **Exams soon, may be a couple days before I update.


	5. Chapter 5

"Don't. You. Dare. Use your mind tricks on me." She says hard and emotionlessly before turning on her heals and gliding out of the kitchen.

"Tasha!" Clint says, tone pleading her to see reason, he follows her out, hand smoothing over her shoulder blade as he catches up with her. She spins around and jerks away from him, hip hitting the corner of a table and sending a vase over; neither reacts to the smash. She strikes at him. He catches her forearm and she yanks it out of his grasp.

"Don't touch me, Clint!" She exclaims picking up and book and sending a well aimed throw at his head, the resounding bang when it hits the wall is loud. He follows after her as she storms out of the room.

"_Ty khocheshʹ, chtoby bytʹ razumnym? Vy buduchi polnostʹyu slepym! Eta devushka mozhet bytʹ vysokokvalifitsirovannyĭ ubiĭtsa i vy doveryaete yeĭ posle vstrechi s nyeĭ neskolʹko chasov nazad!"_ She rattles off in Russian, an angry growl escapes her as she walks away from him. _You want me to be reasonable! You're being completely blind! That girl could be a highly trained assassin and you trust her after meeting her a few hours ago!_

"Natasha! Stop! Chto , chert vozʹmi, vas bespokoit tak mnogo o nyeĭ? YA ne dayu yeĭ polnuyu svobodu zdesʹ , ona v te zhe protokoly , kak nikto drugoĭ!" He snaps back. _Natasha! Stop! What the hell is bothering you so much about her? I'm not giving her free reign here, she's under the same protocols as anyone else! _She stops abruptly and so does he. She turns around very slowly, eyes lit up like flames.

"Pepper can't defend herself from her. Neither can we, for that matter, but I'd rather your _guest_ be under better supervision, by one of us who might actually stand a better chance at defending ourselves. That's what the hell is bothering me, Clint. She's a bigger security risk than Banner was on the helicarrier, and I sure as hell don't want _anything_ even remotely close to what happened then, to happen here." She turns around again and storms off, and he's right on her tail.

"Don't lie to me Tasha." Her back tenses at his words.

"I only lie on the job." Her voice has dropped, hurt noticeable in her voice.

"Then talk to me, why is one girl—_yes_ a security risk—putting you so on edge?" He follows her into another room. At this point she doesn't know where she's going she's just moving.

"What was it about her that made you trust her?" He voice is betraying her emotions, and she only ever gets emotional when it comes to him.

It hits him. _What was it about me that made you make that different call?_ They've rarely ever talked about that day.

"Her eyes." He whispers, and her face falls. _Your eyes._

"She gets a cushy ride here. Didn't take you long to make your decision to bring her in." _Restrained, detox-ing, stitched up, bruised, coming back to herself._

"Tasha." He's pleading again.

"Don't! Clint, if this was because of—if you're trying to make up for something by bringing her here, by _helping_ her. It isn't—you don't need to!" She shouts, trying to bury the tears that want desperately to fall. _After all these years, you've felt guilty?_ He shakes his head, pressing his palms into his eyes. _Blood, everywhere. He doesn't like the feeling he has. Like anxiety, like nerves before a performance._

"She's genuine, Nat, I realize we're trained to see through people, see their lies, but I saw _her_." _She'd asked him before:-why?—while they satiated their adrenaline rushes, still bleeding, minds reeling, not sure if they were making a pivotal mistake by doing this, overstepping a line drawn in sand. It was almost an adrenaline fuck. _Almost. _But he'd kissed her before this. His answer, after hearing her choke out his name in sheer pleasure, while they caught their breath, with his lips on her neck. He'd said that. I saw _you.

Her jaw is set. They've been locked in a silent duel ever since he said those words, time passes differently for them in these moments. She knows they're almost on the same page. He'd always been able to read her. He's almost there, and she's fighting her inner turmoil as to whether or not she truly wants him on that same page; with all the right lenses in place to read her fine print.

"You _saw_ her?" Her voice breaks, but no tears fall. He shakes his head.

"I saw _her._" He says. Stepping closer to her, she looks torn between lashing out and giving in. Nearly a deer-in-headlights look on her face, she's shaking her head, trying to deny something that is undeniable to them.

"I saw _you_ too, Tasha. Through the blood, and the drugs, the sweat and the dirt; I saw _you._ That's how—"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" She screams, shoving his chest and sending him back a few steps. She doesn't want to hear this, _can't _hear this. Not while they're arguing, she balls her fists into her hair, and the tears come. From a professional perspective she _despises _that he's compromised her to this degree. She can't see it right now, how he'd saved her, knows it, well, and has known it since the day she woke up in SHIELD with him next to her bed.

It hadn't been their first meeting. No, they'd met, made a silent mutual agreement not to off the other in exchange for some help with the other's targets. _That_ mission had gone well. Unofficially it was their first. But later she'd found a hole in the unmaking, a liking for hard drugs, and lost some logic when it came to a fix. She'd fucked herself up just enough to be reckless. Whatever concoction she'd had, had unmade her worse than she'd ever known. The havoc it had caused her is too much to think about right now.

She steps into him leaning her head into the crook of his neck. His arms come around her lithe form and he holds her, burying his face in her hair. They stand like that for however long it takes. However long it takes for them to come to another silent mutual agreement. She doesn't trust Cadence. He does. That's fine. Her caution will remain, but for him she'll hold back its displayed intensity. His trust will remain, but for her sake, he'll mentally prepare for the worst, and subconsciously hope for the best.

They're drawn to the piano. Needless to mention out loud, they're both drained. They're sad, but even they don't know that for sure. They sit, and she leans hear head on his shoulder and watches his fingers move over the keys. She knows this song. Soon they're at an impasse. Neither one of them is willing or wanting to lose or win this. There's nothing to it. So she hums along quietly, closes her eyes. Only when the smell of food wafts into the room do they leave.

They can cross that bridge later.

* * *

**Please review, it's the ones that tell me how I'm doing that make these chapters keep on coming. All the Alerts on this is just amazing. Thank you all for reading.**

**_Morgan**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: This is my most popular story, thanks so much to those who have put alerts on it. A few alterations have been made here.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters (except Cadence), clearly, because I'm sort of ignoring Betty...( This is all coming from the Avengers Movie-Verse. I mean no disrespect to her character.)**

* * *

It's early when she wakes up. She's had a solid sleep, and feels a lot better. She tiptoes into the en suite bathroom.

"JARVIS?" She whispers when she's turned on the light and taken in her reflection, the AI's response is quiet.

"_How may I help you, Miss Holland?" _

"What time is it?" She asks taking a towel out of the basket on the large counter.

"_5 am, you've slept for thirteen hours." _She mutters a surprised "geez" in response and proceeds to strip out of her clothes.

As she's about to touch the taps (a screen even in a bathroom, and bless, the temperature is in Celsius.) the water turns on at a perfect temperature. She steps in and she rolls her shoulders, enjoying the soothing heat of the water over her skin. She lathers up the shower poof and gets right down to business in feeling clean again. The shampoo is easy and she massages the gel into her hair. She asks JARVIS to put on a playlist for her and she enjoys the music while she indulges in the heat of the shower. When she steps out she wraps the towel around herself and wanders back into her room before fishing out some clothes Pepper left for her. Pepper certainly has style. When she's dressed she stands in the middle of her room not knowing what to do. It's still ridiculously early.

A knock at the door solves that problem, and she calls out to the person that they can come in. A smile lights up her face when she sees that it's Banner, with apples.

"I'm glad to see you're up." He greets, flashing her a warm smile. She walks over and he hands her an apple which she animatedly takes a bite out of. She takes him in for a moment and finds herself doing a double take. He's wearing a different shirt, but it's a little ruffled and he's a tad scruffy (she finds herself thinking that it suits him) and his hair is a mess—probably from running his hand through it. She smirks at him and fixes his hair while she clutches her apple with both hands. It has him grinning at her.

"You look like you haven't slept at all." She says, half disaprovingly. He shakes his head.

"I did sleep." He said, and when she raises a brow at him disbelievingly he adds, "In the lab; but it was because I was running tests on your blood sample."

"I want answers, but I don't want to keep you from sle—"

"It's no trouble, Cadence." He interrupts, with a smile, she smiles back tentatively, unsure.

"I realize it's an ungodly hour, but if you don't mind, I have a few tests I'd like to run on you in my lab." She's nodding before he's even done speaking and he puts his hand on her shoulder as she makes her way toward the door. Her skin is warm against his hand. There's a significant coolness that replaces his hand when he removes it, yet the action itself lasted only a few seconds. She notices after a moment that they aren't going to the elevator, but to the stairs. She doesn't question it, and silently revels in the chance to move.

"You look a lot better." He says after a couple minutes of climbing down the stairs.

"I feel better, I hadn't really been sleeping before Agent Barton brought me here..." She lets herself trail off.

"I'm sure that excitement from the yesterday knocked you right out." He agrees and she smiles a bit.

"Yeah, the music helped my head stop pounding and lulled me to sleep after about an hour." It's by this time that they reach their designated floor and he ushers her into a hall way. They come up to a brightly lit, very clean room full of lab equipment, like vials, and hot plates and spot plates, and droppers and a centrifuge, among those that she can name. She sees some high tech screens that seem to be running through calculations. There is a table set up at one side of the room with several objects and substances.

"Whoa." She breathes, Banner has his hand on her arm again and is guiding her toward what resembles a dentist's chair. She sits and curiously watches as Bruce moves to a drawer and takes out something that looks like a mesh cap. He puts it on the counter and proceeds to take out EKG sticky pads, a bottle of something and other things she doesn't recognize. When he's gotten what he needs he places all the materials onto a rolling desk that has a monitor on it and slides it over to her.

"I'm going to put these electrodes on you, okay?" He says.

"Go right ahead." She says, watching as he prepares and starts to put the wires on her forehead and temples. The mesh cap goes over her hair and one of the wires connects to it. The monitor beeps and a light goes on. Some machinery further into the lab beeps as well and starts to purr. More electrodes go on each arm and thigh. She has to keep her expression schooled as his fingers brush over her skin as he attaches the last few electrodes to her chest, the monitor beeps again, and she sees an EKG reading of her heart rate and figures it's useless now to school her expression, considering...He doesn't comment on her elevated heart rate if he notices.

"You good?" He asks and she smiles and nods.

"Yup, all good." She says, silently letting out a deep breath when he disappears behind her to attach more wires to things.

"Do you see the table?" He asks, and her gaze falls onto it.

"I do." She says. There is an apple, a glass of water, beads, microwavable rice, matches, three candles, a watermelon, a small wooden box, and a toy robot. Banner breezes past her and wheels another desk two feet in front of her. He puts the beads onto the desk. When she looks more closely she sees that the beads have letter on them. He places himself in front of her and flips over each of the beads so that the letters are hidden.

"I want you to put them in alphabetical order, without flipping them over." He says before moving to the back, she smirks and takes a stabilizing breath before focusing on the first bead. It's just the bead. She makes it hover a fraction of a millimeter; her lips quirk, she feels the letter, almost like she'd scanned it. The bead drops and she picks up the rest simultaneously. She closes her eyes and they all dance around on the desk before coming to a halt and flipping over.

"Done." She says, and she feels him shift; something beeps.

"Seventeen seconds." He says, he's impressed and pensive, she hears him pull the tablet out of the desk at the back and come over to the desk. He chuckles when he sees her eyes are closed.

"Can you cook the apple?" she hums and he looks at the readings on his tablet. Her heart rate slows, so does her breathing and her brain waves fall into the theta category. The rich scent of cooked apple fills the air.

"The rice." He says, watches her readings fluctuate and observes the quick transition back into the (medically) sleeping state. He watches the rice swell and steam comes off the food. Before he asks the box of matches is a pile of ashes and the candles are lit. In that moment her brain waves rise to beta state, he sees the water boiling and evaporating.

"Reverse that." He instructs and freezes so fast that the glass cracks and topples over. That surprises her and her brain waves jump, making the tablet beep unpleasantly. Her brain waves surpass the beta state by three oscillations. She's at a high beta level before he can comment.

"Cadence." His voice is soothing, but her heart rate is elevated.

"What should I do now?" She asks with a half hidden gasp.

"Pick up the box and bring it to the desk." It's moving before he's done talking and he notices that her brain wave oscillations have climbed to thirty two.

"What do I do?" She asks, her voice has taken on a far away sense of being. Her eyes flit over the box quickly her body is tense and her cheeks are flushed and glisten with a slight coating of sweat.

"Turn the lights on." He says, she opens the lid to reveals an array of small light bulbs. The whole lab dims with an electrical surge, one little bulb bursts. The robot starts to walk. Banner is torn between watching her and the readings, opts for her, on the fact that he can re-watch all of his readings along with video later. He's beyond fascinated and also feels his heart beating a little faster in excitement. He hasn't felt this motivated in a while.

"I need to stop." She says with a panicked gasps. Her breathing's coming out in quick gasps, she looks afraid. He puts down the tablet and is kneeling at her side in an instant, hand coming to rest on her forearm with a reassuring grasp. She freezes at that. Body relaxes. Pupils dilate. He thinks for a moment she's stopped breathing, until she lets out a long breath. Her eyes are glued to where his hand is on her. He starts to move, but she holds it there almost as fast as she has her hand holding his.

"I freq-ed." She whispers, looking dismayed. "I haven't for so long." He doesn't attempt to let go of her hand, he moves into her line of sight and puts his other hand on her knee.

"You're fine. Freaking out is okay, this is stressful—" she's shaking her head.

"No, like frequency, I don't know when I dubbed it freq-ing out, but it was one of the things I've read about, frequency, waves. It fit." She gets her thumb nail under the sticky pad on her leg and peels it off. Banner removes the second one and she does the rest simultaneously without moving; the mesh cap and wires find their way onto the desk.

"Your readings are fascinating, Cadence. From a preliminary stand point, I think you function with an extra set of oscillations." She smiles a bit at the uninhibited twinkle of excitement in his eyes, she squeezes his hand. He grins then, and she smiles back. He stands cupping her chin with his free hand and looking at her eyes.

"You're feeling alright? Not faint or drowsy, no pain?" She chuckles at his quick switch to medical doctor, and nods.

"I'm fine now." She assures and he nods approvingly.

"Well, you don't have to do anything more today. I have a lot more information that should help me." She nods and he helps her out of the chair. There are tall chairs lined up near a chicken wired window in the wall.

"I'm still strung out." She says, letting go of his hand. He regards her curiously. She shuts off the light until there are only the glow from the screens and the back of the room. She sits on one of the tall chairs and crosses one leg under the other. It takes Banner a moment to see it, but a ball of blue light about the size of a tennis ball emerges a few feet away from her.

"It's electricity." She murmurs, and it gets brighter, a quiet buzz emits from it.

"Whoa." Bruce breathes. In every sense of the word she pops the bubble. He's about to speak when she shushes him. A red bubble lights up in its place.

"Heat." She explains and then there's fire, and water, and cold. She turns the lights back on and he claps.

"That's outstanding." He says, she makes a face and it makes a breath of a laugh leave him.

"Thanks." She says and he's about to say something else when a monitor beeps and he turns toward it.

"There's a lot to do." He says, moving away from her and toward one of the hanging monitors, he brings up a new screen and starts to tap it. She watches him work intently, fully realizing he doesn't intend to ask her more questions or run more tests for now. So she just watches. Takes in his posture; held well while he works and wary while around the others. He's guarded, careful, around her, but not as wary...She likes how he holds himself while he works, it shows how he knows what he's doing. Him speaking breaks her from her thoughts.

"I'm sorry that was rude. Would you like to go back to your room? Or..." He glances at his monitor for a second, "Barton is awake you could see him." She shakes her head lazily.

"I like watching you work." She admits, and he grins with something akin to embarrassment on his face.

"Plus, I could answer any questions you have." She adds, and he nods. He's ensconced in his work again a few minutes later. She moves up, above the window, and props her feet up. She leans against the wall, closes her eyes and clears her mind. The silences in the room isn't stifling, it's comfortable, and if he's noticed that she'd holding herself up practically in mid air he hasn't said anything. She feels the other brainwaves in the building. Four are sleeping, one is active; _Clint. Banner had mentioned he was awake._ She lets herself relax and focuses on her breathing. The quiet meditation has time slipping away easily, she's wide awake but at the same time she's resting. She hears Banner moving around, the quiet padding of his fingers over the tablets, mumbled calculations to himself.

It's only when she finds herself to be hungry that she thinks something directly. She pictures the watermelon on the table and cuts it into slices. She has a piece hovering toward her and when it finds its way into her hand she smiles.

"Want some watermelon?" She asks, and hears Bruce stop abruptly. Then he laughs and she opens her eyes with a raised brow. He's shaking with laughter and it's contagious, it has her laughing too as she takes a bite of her melon.

"That isn't difficult for you?" He asks, and she shakes her head, making a finger snapping sound near his floating piece of melon. He takes it and bites into it. She laughs again. A new voice has their attention directed at the door.

"Bruce, you better not have been in here all night—well look at that, Jedi Princess is up." Tony's comment has her rolling her eyes.

"That isn't funny, Stark." She says, mock annoyance in her voice. He puts his hands on his hips rather sassily and looks at her incredulously. Banner has sobered up but is still smiling.

"I lost my light saber before Clint brought me in." She says in no-nonsense tone, and that has Tony grinning.

"The force is strong with this one." He says in a deep voice, Banner chuckles.

"It certainly is, Tony, come and see what Cadence has shown me this morning." Tony slides over and looks at the screen.

"Whoa. Are these..?"

"Yep."

"No way."

"Here, I'll show you."

Cadence chuckles to herself and relaxes again, fully content in watching the Science Boys immersed in their work.

* * *

**I changed a few things in this chapter to appease a certain few. After rereading this I saw that it could use some tweaking, I hope it's improved. If it hasn't, oh well, it is my story after all.**

**Reviews are always helpful, and thank you to the people who gave reasons and specifics behind their critiques, it was very helpful. I hope you enjoy chapter 7.**

**P.S. I **_**am**_** trying to set up Cadence and Banner. It's in the description. It will be significant in later chapters, refer to the title...**


	7. Chapter 7

**I fixed up chapter 6, so take a look, I think a few points have been improved upon. So here's chapter 7. Hope you all enjoy it **

**If it's unclear about 4 days have passed since Ch 6.**

* * *

"Maybe something affected them? A threat?" Steve suggests cocking his head to the side as if a new perspective will help them solve this.

"It's not entirely impossible." Banner replies a frown creasing his forehead, he hasn't seen anything like this in his life, and he's silently half wishing he could be taking brainwave readings on these two right now.

"There's been zero air activity, no movement on any of the high rises in the vicinity to strike up alarm, no ground disturbances..." Tony shoots off looking at his handheld; he glances back up at Cadence and Clint.

"We're in agreement that we're not going to touch them?" he asks again, Bruce sighs.

"Yes, in Clint's case he may be jolted into awareness and strike out. And in Cadence's case the drastic shift from theta waves to beta waves may...it may cause her a great deal of pain." He says still uncertain of what on earth is going on with those two.

"Romanov, I need you on the roof. Something's up with Barton." Tony says into his handheld, Steve and Banner hear her sharp displeased voice from the other line.

"_Stark, what the hell could possibly be _up _with Barton?"_

"Just get up here, tout suit, if you don't mind." He disconnects before she can say anything else.

"What were they doing up here to begin with?" Tony asks, glancing sidelong at the pair. Cadence and Clint are sitting on the ground completely and impenetrably ensconced in the dancing flames of a small fire in one of the unnecessarily installed fire pits he has. Clint hugging his knees, eyes focused into the flames, pupils constricted. Cadence is cross legged, pupils' large, eyes following the flickering of the fire. They're both stalk still, and have been in the same position since Tony walked up here twenty minutes ago.

"You know that Fury allowed her knowledge of her whereabouts yesterday. She and I were going to run through some meditation techniques, I wanted to test a couple theories I have about how she functions with an extra wavelength. Barton brought her up while I finished setting up the prep work to synthesize the drug that's in her system. Wouldn't have been more than forty minutes, but Tony called me up after about half an hour, and Barton had said something vague about targets."

"Half an hour and now the archer and the telekinetic are petrified." Tony says a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"This isn't normal." Steve says, watching Cadence warily.

"If you hadn't noticed, Cap, we're not exactly the picture of normalcy." Natasha says as she comes through the door. Tony's face brightens a bit with relief.

"Took you long enough." He jabs, and her resulting scowl shuts him up. Her eyes fall to Clint and Cadence. A smirk plays over her face.

"Something's up with Barton alright." She says, a laugh escaping her.

"You've seen this before?" Steve asks and she nods. She's seen it alright, sees it in his posture. He's putting everything he has into his focus. Notes something similar in Cadence's posture.

"They're competing." She says.

"They're competing? How are they competing, they're just looking at fire." Steve interjects, and Natasha raises a brow at the Captain.

"First of all, Clint is looking at a rock near the wood, and Cadence is looking at the flames." She starts, gracefully making her way over to her partner, she's wearing runner's shorts and a blue tank top, she's also bear foot.

"Second, it's a competition to see who has the best focus." She explains bringing her mouth to Clint's ear.

"_Prosnisʹ, yastreb."_ She whispers, _Wake up, Hawk._ Banner expects him to be jolted back to reality but he's proven wrong when the archer simply closes his eyes and a lazy smile stretches across his face.

"_YA ne spala, vdova."_He replies, _I wasn't sleeping, Widow._ She smiles.

"You broke my concentration." He says, not accusingly just curiously. She nods.

"They didn't know what to do when they found you and Cadence up here, being competitive." She gives him a look that implies he's competitive quite often.

"_She's_ the one that brought it up." He defends finally moving. The moment he does, the fire goes out and light returns to Cadence's eyes. She turns, grinning.

"I won." She says with an air of triumph, looking smug.

"If I hadn't been interrupted I would be the victor right now." He counters, and she notices the others are here with them.

"You didn't notice us at all, did you?" Banner asks, and she shakes her head.

"Not at all." She admits freely.

"I've been trained to block out all interfering outside forces." Clint comments, rising from his spot and standing next to Natasha he smiles when he notices her clothes, "You were dancing?" He murmurs, and she nods tightly.

"We thought something had gotten you." Steve says revealing his unclear concern over the matter.

"_You_ thought something had gotten to them, but there wasn't anything to support that." Tony says argumentatively.

"Well none of us knew how to snap them out of it." Steve counters, frowning.

"_Snapping_ them out wouldn't have been good." Banner says, coming over to Cadence and giving her a hand up.

"No, that wouldn't have been good." Natasha agrees, putting a hand on Clint's arm. Both of them become a little forlorn as a memory navigates through their thoughts. Almost as quickly they brighten again and Natasha drops her hand. Clint nods at her, and the pair is suddenly deep in a silent conversation. Steve takes his leave silently—feeling like an intruder to the assassin's moment—albeit a little begrudgingly. Tony shrugs turning to Bruce.

"How high do you want 'em to reach?" He asks, knowing the other scientist will understand what he's talking about.

"Fifty oscillations; no more than that." He says, Cadence raises a brow in inquiry, Tony catches her expression.

"I'm working on a project that will allow us to take readings of your brainwaves without putting all those wires on you."

"That will be a relief." She says and he looks proud.

"I came up with the idea myself." He says as he makes his way to the door. Banner snorts at Tony's cocky expression.

"Forgive me if I don't believe you." Cadence calls after him.

"You are so _not_ forgiven, Princess." It's the last thing they hear from him. She shakes her head with a chuckle. It starts to rain.

"Do you want to go inside?" Bruce asks when she doesn't react right away. She's tilted her head back and closes her eyes taking a deep breath.

"No, if that's alright with you." She says, opening her eyes to look at him. His shirt is getting speckled with raindrops. She looks over at Natasha and Clint, as the rain becomes stronger their silent conversation ends and Natasha blinks looking up. Clint smiles and the two retreat to the veranda and begin a quiet conversation.

"I don't mind. Barton and Natasha are up—"

"Oh, stay! We can go inside in a bit, take a break, Banner. You're in no rush." He doesn't know what makes him stay, it might be the light in her eyes, the light that wasn't present the first few days she was here, or it might be that he does need a bit of a break.

"I keep telling you, I'm interested in figuring this out too." He says shaking his head, he shrugs, and copies her earlier movement of tilting her head back.

"Isn't it nice?" She says, raising her voice over the rainfall, they're both drenched, and she hears Clint laughing from the veranda, she looks over and sees that he's chuckling. Natasha is trying to hide her mirth, but hers is directed at Bruce. A clap of thunder has them all jumping, and the sky darkens considerably. Cadence dances over to the veranda and sits next to the wall watching the sky; Bruce follows suit, he moves to sit down when a heat comes over him like a warm wind, he smirks when a decent sized ball of water hovers in front of him before disappearing into the rain.

"That never fails to surprise me." He says taking a seat next to her; they're both dry. A particularly loud clap of thunder has her jerking with a start and leaning into Bruce ever so slightly. Having had so many years of practice the sudden noises don't startle him as much. He looks over at the assassins; Natasha's gotten up to stand at the edge of the veranda, she's looking up at the sky with a thoughtful frown on her face.

"What's on your mind, Tasha?" He hears Clint ask as he stands next to her. He sees her shrug.

"There's something familiar about those clouds." She says leaning against one of the pillars. A bright flash of lightening has Cadence's eye widening with childish awe. Bruce appreciates seeing her so enamoured, sort of takes a piece of her enjoyment. There's a rumble of thunder so strong is rattles the building.

"Whoa!" Cadence exclaims, and she hears Natasha swear.

"What is it?" Bruce calls over. Natasha turns to him.

"Thor." She says, and before Cadence can ask any questions there's an eardrum shattering boom that has them all covering their ears. Cadence has her eyes on the clouds as they billow and seem to form a gaping hole, her jaw drops. There's a flash and an object starts to fall from the sky.

"What the hell is—" She doesn't get to finish before she's screaming.

Hey eyes stop working, its pure white, her ears ring, her head burns and screams at her like an axe has been buried in her skull. They're thrown back against the wall, and she finds herself curling into the closest thing to her. Natasha and Clint brace had braced themselves on the pillars, and managed to stay standing. Natasha looks to Banner and Cadence, her stomach does a dip. Banner's eyes are screwed shut and he's completely rigid. Cadence is screaming—in _pain—_and curled into him subconsciously. Her hand finds Clint's arm.

"Nat?—Oh shit." He says following her gaze.

_Everything is fine. There's no danger. You're fine. It's safe here. It's just Thor. You can't Hulk out here. Breathe Banner. The Other Guy isn't needed here, there's too many people—Cadence. Screaming. She's on me._ That fact has him frozen, slows his heart and stops his shock response. She's screaming, clutching at her head, with a force that looks like she could be ripping her hair out. She's leaning into his chest; he feels her screams vibrating through him.

"Cadence!" He exclaims, bringing a hand to the back of her head. Clint falls into a kneel next to them.

"What's wrong with her?" He asks, concern bleeding from him like a sliced artery. Bruce looks at him with an expression of horror and uncertainty. Natasha rushes out onto the roof to where Thor landed.

"Ah, the beautiful Widow, I am glad to see you again!" He greets with a bow. She shoots a look behind her, relaxing ever so slightly now that she's certain Bruce is alright.

"Likewise, Thor." She says managing a tight smile. Thor's noticed the screaming.

"What is the matter with the youngling?" He says making moves toward the trio on the veranda. If anything Cadence screams louder.

"Cadence, Cadence, what's wrong, what hurts?" Banner asks, not bothering to pry her off of him. He moves his hand on her hair to her back and gapes at the purple bruises forming near her temples. Clint hisses when he sees them too.

"My head, my head!" She manages, tears, mixed with blood streak Bruce's shirt. She screams louder and Clint turns around suddenly.

"Move back! Move away!" He shouts at Thor. The Asgardian pauses in his step and Natasha ushers him back. Her screams diminish into wails and her grip transfers to Bruce's arm, fisting into his shirt.

"Am I causing harm to her?" Thor asks, concernedly, watching the display, makes his chest ache for the girl.

"I don't know. Stay right here." She's nearly a blur and comes to a stop at the edge of the veranda.

"What's doing this?" She asks sharply. Hating the sounds of Cadence's tormented screams.

"So strong! Loud!" Cadence chokes out, curling into Banner even more.

"His brain waves!" He exclaims, subconsciously rubbing uselessly soothing circles on Cadence's back. "It must be his brain waves." Natasha turns away and pulls out her palm tablet.

"Tony! Get up to the roof now! And bring a dose of tranquilizers!" She barks, walking back toward Thor who looks increasingly distraught.

"Is it I who torments the girl so?" He asks, she makes a face.

"_What's going on up there?" _Tony's response comes in, he's moving, she can hear the noise in the background.

"Just get up here or our guest might end up brain dead!" She replies she looks at Thor.

"It's not your fault, but her abilities—you could be causing her pain, based on her abilities." She explains as easily as she can. Thor frowns, but doesn't say anything.

"It has to do with proximity." He says, piecing together the evidence of the last few minutes. Natasha nods. Tony rushes onto the roof and freezes as he takes in Cadence's appearance.

"What happened?" He asks, Natasha shoots a look at Thor that tells him not to move. She rushes over the Tony.

"Thor's here. Could be that his Asgardian brain waves are too much for Cadence. Where's the tranquilizer?" She demands half grimacing at how dumb 'Asgardian brainwaves' sound, he holds out a syringe.

"You're not going to tranq Thor are you?" He asks, and she shakes her head, dropping to her knees next to a still screaming Cadence.

"This is going to stop the pain, Cadence." She says loudly, and rather ruthlessly jabs the syringe into Cadence's neck. Her body jolts, and four people mentally cross their fingers that she doesn't reject it. Her screams stop, devolving into whimpers. Her body sags, and Clint catches her and lays her on her back on the concrete. They're all silent, Tony and Banner's faces pale, Clint's an open book of shock, Natasha's schooled but concerned. Cadence's eyes are bloody, the blood vesicles having hemorrhaged, red tracks down her cheeks and covers her lips from where she'd also bled from her nose.

"God." Tony says, "She's not dead is she?"

* * *

**Reviews are always appreciated, they help me improve continuous thanks to all those who have alerted this.**

**Chapter 8 coming soon.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: More than 60 alters, thank you so much. I really hope you are enjoying this. I am, it's an experience, as I haven't completed a multi-chapter before. So here's chapter 8, and I am stalling a bit. **

**Enjoy :)**

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The sound of a heart monitor resonates through his skull as he walks away from Cadence's room. He can't stay there anymore. Purple bruises had formed along her temples to around her eyes, which are still bloody and unseeing. Like electric patterns, red outlines formed at the back of her neck and down her spine. The blood that streaked her face had been washed off, and Pepper had helped get her into comfortable clothes. Banner hadn't left her side since Natasha had administered the tranquilizer. Clint could see it in Bruce's face; the panic, the guilt, the pain. He knew where that came from. Steve was trying to reassure Thor, who was beside himself with the fact that he couldn't stop himself hurting Cadence. It was his brain waves, after all, that had caused this in the first place. Something about a higher amplification in Demi-Gods.

He finds himself moving toward the studio in the back of the building, where he knows he'll find Natasha. He opens the door silently and slips through, a small smile breaking through his concerned expression when he lays eyes on her. The only sound is the movement of her ballet shoes on the wooden floor, her breathing as she moves and spins with a grace he cherishes seeing. He can see it on her face that something is bothering her. It's in the way she moves; it's subtle under that grace, but it's there, a tenseness that's almost unreadable. She's fighting to control her emotions as she dances to a song he can't hear. He leans against the bar on the opposite side of the room from her and watches.

She knows he's there but she can't speak to him right away, she needs to move, feel her muscles pull, let her mind catch up with her before she can deal with it. Dancing had been one thing that was a positive, even if the career she'd imagined it had led to was fake. She remembers learning grace in movement, _they _made the girls and boys endure the courses from a very early age. Strict, full of punishment, but it had been an outlet because it was one thing she could do with natural ease; something for which she'd received little punishment. Russians and Ballet went hand in hand. Her music is faster now, and so she speeds up to meet it; arms raising, legs lifting, pivoting, jumping, bending, and spinning. The music matches her mind. Dizzying. She'd gotten a flash of memory when Cadence was screaming; Natasha had heard those screams before; younger, higher pitched, just as pained and terrified. The cloudy dream-like image of long curly brown hair. Hey song ends and she finds herself on her hands and knees, having caught herself from a stumble. She pulls her ear phones out and lets out a huff of air.

"Tasha." It's Clint's voice next to her, she closes her eyes and stands, only opening them to meet Clint's gaze. She opens her mouth to speak but realizes she doesn't know what she wants to say. She closes her mouth.

"You disappeared." He says, bringing a hand to her bicep, her gaze drops to his hand, and her expression becomes pensive.

"I've heard those screams before." She deadpans meeting his gaze again.

"I have too." He says and she shakes her head.

"No, Clint, I don't mean tortured, terrified screams; I know what _we've_ heard—seen." She argues, stepping away from him and running her hands through her hair. "Those exact screams." She says quietly. Clint's face falls in unease.

"Tasha, what do you mean by that?"

"I mean that I've heard her scream like that before!" She exclaims, fear clear on her face. "I've heard that _girl_ scream before, those exact same screams!" Her voice breaks in anger and revelation. "The memory is so vague..." She adds with a whisper.

"What canyou place?" He asks, and she looks at him doubtfully.

"I see...I remember the screams." She begins turning slightly, her eyes looking into the distance, searching for the memory. "Indifference, sort of...I was young—I remember the curly hair." She searches his eyes, confusion running through hers.

"You would have been in—"

"I was in Russia." She interrupts, assuring him of the facts. She sees disappointment in his eyes, the confusion.

"Are you sure?" He asks slight desperation in his tone. Had she played him? Cadence had been in Russia at the same time as Natasha? "What does that mean?"

"I can't trust those memories." Her eyes are bright with anger and fear. "I don't know what it means. I'm sorry." Clint turns away from her and runs his hands through his hair.

"Fury ran all the checks. Analysts have cross checked her friends and teachers and family..." He looks at her with something akin to guarded desperation.

"I don't know what it means, Clint!" She hates that look on his face, hates it that she doesn't trust the memories, _can't_ trust them. Hopes for his sake that she's wrong, or at least that what she's remembering doesn't mean what both seem to think it implies. She can hold onto that thread of hope, because Clint saw good in her. And he also saw good in _her._

"What's Cadence's status?" She asks and Clint takes a steadying breath.

"She's unconscious. Banner is with her, he won't leave her side." He replies, he's trying to distance himself from the slight feeling of betrayal that's washing through him without his permission. _The facts aren't set. Nat isn't even sure of what she remembers. You're not blind. Don't let your judgment fall, wait until all the facts are out on the table. Don't doubt yourself._ He takes another steadying breath and his conviction returns.

"As long as she's immobilized she isn't a threat. I need to do some...research." She says, expression changing as she decides what she'll be doing with her time for the rest of the day. Clint brings a calloused hand up to her jaw.

"Whatever this is, we can get through it. Home turf, Nat. If it comes down to it we have the upper hand." He leans the bridge of his nose against Natasha's.

"That's the last thing you want." She mutters, hand finding its way to his arm.

"That's right." He says, nudging her nose a bit. He gets a small smile out of her then. She closes her eyes.

"I'd rather it didn't come down to that either." It's true, she wants to trust Cadence, finds it would be easy after today, but she's uneasy, something she can't place, and something she _has_ to place. There's silent, standing together for a few minutes before she presses a quite gentle kiss at the side of his mouth.

"Research." She says, and she's out the door before the half smile can fully form on his face.

_**1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21-34**_

She creeps out of her room silently, eyes feeling gritty, muscles craving sleep. Natasha has been searching through archive after archive, and requisitioned access to countless files that may help her figure out what she remembers. She'd cross referenced information on the file Cadence had brought in. Information she's sure Banner would like to see had been found deep in classified scientific research servers; she'd skimmed through some of it, but left it to JARVIS to inspect for any relevant information that might pertain to her...research.

She'd asked the AI to turn off the elevator sounds, and it opens silently. She wanders in and leans up against the mirrored wall sleepily. The ride to her designated floor would take enough time. When she's there she pads through the carpeted hall and finds the door already open. She smiles near deliriously when he envelopes her in a hug. She lets herself lean into him as he closes the door and they stand like that for a long time.

"I'm going to fall asleep." Her voice is muffled by his shirt and he chuckles. He releases her and she moves to the bed, walking over to her side and situating herself between he covers. When he lies down she rolls over, pillowing her head in the crook of his neck. It's the second most intimate thing they do. She savours this, the simplicity of sharing a bed with someone, finds it's only improved both of them when they are working. They're only truly comfortable, at ease, and unguarded together, with the state of the art security system as their blanket.

_It's a perfectly straight single file line of girls and boys. Smallest to Tallest, all wearing the appropriate attire for dance. Her hair is in a tight braid at the back of her head and none of it is in her face. The colour doesn't register. She is young, under ten years. The studio is down two more hall ways, perfectly white, clean, and shining; their steps are silent. Only the instructor's steps can be heard at the front of the line. She's careful. She pretends that she doesn't like these courses but they're secretly her favourite. If she were to betray any kind of joy in the activity she would surely be removed from the roster, or put into a higher course, which by default meant stricter instructors. A door opens but none of the children in the line turn; that is until a scream pierces the silence and has each of them turning toward it out of instinct. They don't break the line. She sees a person, a girl, smaller, younger than her, curly brown hair, pressed into the corner of a room covering her face with her arms and screaming in such a way that she's never heard before. It's terrified, like how her mother's had sounded. She doesn't realize the line has begun to move..._

"_Natalia!" A sharp smack has her face to trollish face with her instructor. __"__Yee kriki ne vashe bespokoĭstvo. Tam budut posledstviya, yesli vy ne polnostʹyu sosredotocheny na svoyeĭ tseli." The woman snarls, 'her screams are not your concern. There will be consequences if you are not completely focused on your goal.' She nods tightly and the woman turns her back on her. She chances and glance back into the room and sees the girl's nose is bleeding and she sobbing now. The door closes with a slam._

"_Natalia__! Glaza vpered!" Eyes forward!_

With a gasp she's sitting up, nails digging into her cheek where the instructor had hit her. It had been so vivid.

"Tasha?" Clint's tired but alert voice reaches her.

"_YA ponimayu." _She whispers and feels Clint sit up beside her.

"What do you understand?" He asks, hand on her arm, calming her.

"I missed something. In the research; I'd found one trial, information about the drug, but nothing about Cadence, fifteen names, and none of them were her. I checked them all. I missed another trial. A smaller one, that worked in collaboration with the people who created me." She's quiet for a moment, and Clint doesn't know what is running through her head until she's curling up into his chest. Then next second she's gone.

"Natasha?" He whispers loudly.

"I've got to make the connection. This can't wait. Sleep, Clint. I'm alright. I just need to figure this out."

"I hope you get your answers." _Love you._ An orange line of light appears when she opens the door.

"Me too." _Love you too._ And she's gone, and so is the light.

* * *

**Please send me a review, whatever is on your mind, the critiques help me improve and the kind words motivate me. Only two more exams and all my attention can be on this**.

**Stay tuned. :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: This is one of the easiest things I've written. It's just flowing out of my brain easily. I hope you're all enjoying. Incoming complications, hold onto your socks. :)**

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The welcoming sound of coffee being made is the only sound in the kitchen besides Tony tapping his tablet. Clint watches the coffee drip dismally, a little more than half asleep as his fingers play with the two mugs in his hand, one purple, one a mosaic of red, yellow, and blue. His toast pops just as the coffee machine beeps. He pours the coffee and moves to the toast, quickly butters it and takes a bite. He adds milk to his mug and a relaxed smile grows on his face. He remembers _that_ day handing her coffee on an undercover mission only a couple of month after...

His thoughts are interrupted with a start when Thor, having uncharacteristically entered the kitchen speaks to the two men.

"I am going to visit Jane." He announces his deep voice much quieter than both Tony and Clint are used to.

"That sounds like a great idea." Clint agrees, he sees how beat up the friendly giant looks, notices his effort to be quiet, even though it's not he who needs to be quieter, but his brain waves.

"Yes, miss Cadence will not be able to awaken with my continued presence. Visiting Jane will be uplifting." He says his guilt is so visible on his face that even Tony notices it.

"It wasn't your fault. None of us knew that would happen." Tony says, trying to reassure Thor as much as possible. Thor nods, a grim smile appearing on his face.

"Be what your knowledge was at the time, it was still I who caused the girl of rhythm to cry tears of blood." He looks ashamed; Clint frowns curiously at what Thor referred to Cadence as. Typically poetic, but a nice. He's still holding onto the hope that what Natasha remembers doesn't implicate Cadence. He wants so badly for her to be good. As if thought alone brought her to him, Natasha walks in.

"Hello, Thor." She greets, eyes lighting up when she lays eyes on the steaming mug of coffee waiting for her. Her hair is in disarray and she has slight bags under her eyes.

"Good morning, I was just announcing my plan to leave the tower to visit Jane. Do you think that is it wise of me to leave?" After taking a sip of her coffee Natasha nods.

"As much as we'd like you to stay and bring us up to date on the trial in Asgard, we can find an alternate way. Right now I think you would benefit more from visiting Jane. We'll update you on Cadence's wellbeing, of course." She says; she honestly wishes he could stay, he'd taken on the Hulk for her, technically saving her, and she finds his confusion at earth terms endearing.

"I would very much appreciate that. It's regrettable that she and I met on such appalling terms."

"Are you leaving now?" Tony asks, and Thor nods.

"I requisitioned a vehicle. I will transport myself most of the way after I am brought to a 'secure location'." He explains, Clint laughs once.

"It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superma—no it's Thor!" Tony says putting on a childish voice of awe. Thor regards him confusedly.

"I don't understand." He says, and Natasha pats his arm reassuringly.

"Don't worry about it. It's just an Earth joke." She says, and he nods.

"I must be going now." He says, nodding respectfully to each of them.

"I'll set up a video call so that you can brief us later, alright?" Natasha says, and he smiles.

"Yes, Director Fury will want to be updated as well. Loki's trial is something to be discussed as soon as possible." Natasha doesn't miss the way Clint bristles at the mention of the other Asgardian.

"Have a good trip." Tony calls as Thor turns away.

"I anticipate one." Thor agrees and he makes his exit. Natasha takes an enthusiastic mouthful of coffee and her sigh of satisfaction isn't missed by her partner.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Clint asks, taking a bite of his toast. Natasha nods.

"After the incident Fury wanted any information we could find on the drug trials Cadence was in. I found the Doctor, a Dr. Rook he'd done extensive studies in neurosciences and the like and had produced a drug that once inside the subject would naturally reproduce. The test name is Cortexlimin for Cerebral Cortex Limitations Inhibitor. All of the science babble is on the shared domain." She takes another mouthful of coffee. Clint glances at Tony to see that he's already looking at Natasha's findings.

"I also found two trials, a larger one with fifteen subjects, starting from birth to age 4, in Vancouver, and one that took significantly more digging and a few messages to contacts."

"What did you find?" Clint asks, waiting for her while she opens the fridge and takes out some fruit salad.

"The Vancouver trial was a failure." She starts, pausing to serve herself some breakfast. "The second trial, with only seven children, was connected to a party in Russia that dealt with the 'improvement of the next generation', there were certain scientists that consulted and improved Rook's initial cocktail." The motion she makes with her hand, tells him he knows the rest after that. He nods.

"Any indication as to whether or not our guest is—"

"I haven't found anything concrete, I have my own hunch and there are analysts on base looking deeper." He looks a little relieved. She eats her fruit salad meaningfully; Tony disappears muttering something about needing to do some work.

"You handed me my coffee one morning and you were a goner." She says catching him watching her, the way he nurses his coffee cup brings on the fond memory.

"It was the look on your face." He says, and she smiles.

"You've told me." Her eyes smile as she pops a grape into her mouth.

"I have, and it never gets old." He assures, not that she needs it.

"Who knew coffee could bring people together in such a way." She muses, making a face at him. He chuckles, and attempts to fix her hair a bit. She rolls her eyes, and he gives up opting to wrap his arms around her from behind. She hums pleasantly, silently having missed getting to sleep with him with all that's happening.

"I'm going to bring Banner some food, and check on Cadence's status." She says, and feels Clint nod.

"Fury had a couple mission lined up for me; I'm going to look at a few." He squeezes her waist ever so slightly more before relaxing his arms.

"Anything interesting?" _Dangerous?_ He shrugs.

"Lots of surveillance, two undercover, nothing longer than two weeks." She nods curtly.

"I'm sure there are other agents who can take care of it." He says, dismissing the thought. She brightens considerably after the dismissal.

"Spar later?" She asks twisting around to look at him.

"Alright." He agrees, she leans her forehead against his and closes her eyes.

"I also plan to sleep tonight." She says, he smiles.

"As do I." He moves back and watches her start to make Banner some breakfast.

"I'll see you later." He says, palm flattening over her back.

"I know where to find you." She replies shooting him a smile as he moves toward the door.

"That you do." He agrees, and then she's alone in the kitchen.

**1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21-34-55-89-144**

Bruce leans back in the chair he's taken up residence in. Everything in this room feels larger than they are. The steady drip of Cadence's IV is thundering. The beeps from the heart monitor echo through his skull, each of Cadence's breaths calm and slow are overwhelmingly evident to him. Her bruises look worse than they are, that's how they work, but his stomach twists whenever his eyes fall onto them. She'd been doing well. Spending four days in his lab with her, he'd learned a lot about what she'd been going through before finding Barton.

She'd had an overbearing sense of being followed, couldn't sleep because of it, and had noticed patterns. A grey clad man, and then a blue clad man, beige car, and then black car. She'd disabled the cars and cuffed the men to their respective poles—that they had handcuffs had bothered her—and threw their keys into sewers. She'd hidden in a motel, not being able to go back to her apartment. She'd done research, and found her way to the help she needed. A knock at the door interrupts his thoughts.

"Hey, Banner, how is Cadence doing?" Natasha asks, she's come in with a tray of food and a small pouch. She looks at the comatose girl on the bed, her expression is guarded.

"Stable. She's currently functioning at a low Delta brainwave pattern." He motions with his chin to two pieces of equipment, one on either side of the head of the bed; tall stands with balls on top.

"They're what Stark made. Instead of putting electrodes on her...they read brainwaves just as well, if not better." Natasha nods and walks over to him with the tray. He smiles when he sees what foods she brought.

"Ah, thank you." He says taking the tray from her. She shrugs, she looks a little guilty about what she's going to say next.

"I've been doing research." She starts and watches as Bruce's face falls slightly after he swallows a raspberry.

"Go on." He says.

"The drug trial Cadence was in was affiliated with the people who created me." She says, and Banner frowns.

"In Russia?" He asks and she nods.

"There's a chance that Cadence could be under a shade, which is a specialized method of hypnotic suggestion; months of being fed information subconsciously to make you believe you're someone you're not." Banner's expression is blank.

"I relate to it personally." She states, he nods again, telling her to go on.

"They made me think I was a professional ballerina for eighteen months, I was sixteen. A whole life of memories." Her expressionless face changes to something akin to masked grief. "There's a phrase that triggered me, because the whole time I was there, I was meant to kill the director of the company I was dancing for. He was trafficking girls and he had countless connections." She stops there, but the story hangs in the air as if there's much more to it.

"You think that Cadence is under a shade, then? How profound do they get?" He asks; the unease on his face is unhidden.

"It goes as far as to change accents and mother tongues; memories." She says and Banner starts to say something, she interrupts him.

"All her paper work lines up; always the best quality fakes; what doesn't make sense is why there's a trail back to the Russian drug trial. So I may be wrong, but those Doctors wouldn't have been solely concerned with perfecting a limitation inhibiting drug, they would have done something with it, and the odds that they used the children aren't in our favour."

"Where does that leave us?" He asks, looking at Cadence's unconscious form on the bed, he doesn't believe it.

"We can't let anyone from outside this tower get close to her on the off change that she could be activated." Natasha says near robotically. Banner nods.

"_If_ she was 'shaded' at all."

"We need to take precautions. All the information is on the shared domain." She gives him a sympathetic look as she retreats.

"Thor left, he went to see Jane. You can take Cadence off the sedative." Her tone is softer and he nods again, processing what she said.

"Thanks for the food." He says.

"No problem." When she's gone he eats the food deliberately. Not tasting the eggs, or the fruit, but only eating because he has to. He sets the tray aside and moves over to Cadence and sits on the edge of the bed. He picks up her hand gently and removes the IV. After putting a bandage over the wound his eyes move over her face. If the ache in his chest is anything to say about it, he hopes that Natasha is wrong.

Cadence is so real. If she were to actually be under this _shade_, it would be like being lied to, regardless of the fact that she wouldn't know she'd been doing it.

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**So there you have it, next update should me Tuesday, Montreal time zone. Reviews are always appreciated. Thanks for reading :)**

**Also the coffee conversation between Clint and Natasha is courtesy of brbshittoavenge on tumblr for her amazing headcanons. I'll be using a few of them later on in subtle ways.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: So here's chapter 10, I'm all done with school for the summer so I'll be updating a lot faster. **

**This chapter is a bit shorter than the last, but length should pick up again in 11.**

**Enjoy. :)**

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He's fallen asleep in the chair, tablet in hand. Cadence stirs on the bed and a groan of discomfort leaves her. _She shudders blinking her eyes open but not seeing. She gasps, turning her head from side to side quickly and whimpering in pain when her head throbs. She stills, taking a deep breath before focusing on fixing her eyes. From a dark red shadow to a blur around the edges in seven seconds. Next is her head. When that stops throbbing she rises from the bed and sees Bruce asleep on the chair. A soft smile appears on her face and she steps toward him._

"_Miss Holland—" JARVIS' voice is cut off by a sharp ringing._

"_Shade Override." Comes a deep voice in JARVIS' place. Cadence cries out clutching at her head._

_Bruce opens his eyes to see Cadence standing a few feet away from him. He sits up, about to stand when she holds out her hand to stop him. She crosses over to him with all the grace of a ballerina and her hands cup his face._

"_Cadence?—" _

"_Shhhh." She says mouth descending onto his with a firm gentleness. A surprised sound escapes him and he moves back, she follows leaning over his lap. Just as he's about to respond in kind her mouth is at his ear, nail digging softly into the scruff on his jaw._

"_You don't need that gun." She whispers so sensually it's a wonder he doesn't shudder. His breath does catch though, when he realizes that he's in the middle of an expansive field with a Glock in his hand. His eyes are wide as she meets his gaze, soothing, calm, pitying. He hears the gun disarm._

"_You know how that worked last time." She croons, still cupping his face. "Because..." She leans her forehead against his, the bridge of her nose lining up with his in such a way that he thinks she might kiss him again._

"_...I can kill you."_

He sits up with a start, head swimming, and heart beating a little faster than he's comfortable with. He closes his eyes pressing his palms into his eyes so that blotches of coloured light dissipate the image of her mouth forming those words. He hadn't gone back there in years. He'd gotten over that. _You think, and yet Natasha's words are drawing this memory and understanding out of the recesses of your mind. _He shakes away the thought, tries to quench the knowledge flowing through him like poison. He doesn't want to go there; he _helps_ people, he can help where no one else can. But the idea has taken up roots. It can't be deracinated. Cadence can kill him.

A hoarse, frightened whimper reaches his ears and he looks up. Cadence had turned onto her side and has her eyes screwed shut and her face is contorted in a grimace.

"My head..." She groans, red murky tears slip down her cheeks. Bruce crosses over to her without a second thought, sitting on the edge of her bed. She still instantly, eyes opening and searching, but not seeing.

"Bruce?" She wavers slightly, unsure.

"Right here." He says putting his hand over hers, she has it in a tight grasp within seconds.

"It feels like there's a block of lead over my head." She says groggily, he expects her to metabolize the rest of the drug any moment now, but she doesn't. She frowns, semi-permanent grimace on her face.

"I can't fix me." She says with a little distress.

"What do you mean?" He asks squeezing her hand.

"I can't...see...or think...and I can't fix it." She says, taking long blinks.

"You've suffered some head trauma. Another member of the Avengers team dropped by; he's not from here and his brain waves project with much more force than humans' do." Bruce explains. She trembles.

"It'll come back right, I'll get my telekinesis back?" Her voice is awfully hoarse, but her words reverberate through him. Her ability, the very one that can—

"Your brain swelled a little from the trauma. You'll be groggy and tired for a while, but I'm sure when the swelling decreases you'll be fine." Her finger nails dig into his hand ever so slightly, then relax.

"My eyes too?" She croaks, he's sure she isn't aware of how scared she looks.

"Eyes heal quickly." He assures and she nods, wincing slightly. She threads her fingers with his, not wanting to lose the contact.

"I'm so tired." She says, stifling a yawn as she does so.

"That's completely normal." He says, letting his other hand brush a strand of hair out of her face, his fingers barely ghost over her skin, he's worries about hurting her. Her eyes flutter shut.

"You still going to be here when I wake up, Banner?" She asks quietly. He disentangles his fingers from hers and her hand follows his as he moves back.

"Yeah. I'll be here, Cadence." He promises. A small smile forms on her lips.

"Okay." She whispers and her breathing evens out within minutes. He gets up slowly, watching her relax before turning away. He runs his hands through his hair, tugging on it before dropping his hands to his sides. He looks back over at her sleeping form, desperation on his face.

_I can kill you. I can kill you. I can kill you. Icankillyou. ._

"No, no, no, no!" He bangs his fists up against the wall, letting his forehead thud against it. He takes a deep breath and steps over to his tablet. He presses a few buttons and after a few agonizing heartbeats Tony's face pops up on the screen.

"_How's Cadence doing?" _He asks, moving the toothpick he has in mouth with his tongue.

"She's asleep now. She was awake a few minutes ago. She's unable to use her telekinesis, and I'm fairly certain her perception of brainwaves is at a low. She can't see." He watches Tony nod and look at something off the screen.

"How is the synthesizing going?" Bruce asks, and a smiles quirks at Tony's lips.

"_These readings are scientist porn."_ He says with a little too much satisfaction; Bruce chuckles. "_The drug itself will take a little more time to synthesize, but I have managed to reproduce it in blood."_

"Can we administer this to Cadence?" Bruce asks, Tony gnaws on his bottom lip for a moment with the toothpick sticking out; mentally calculating.

"_Yep, you thinking that it'll speed up her recovery?"_

"I do. I don't want to give her a lot though I'd say a ten percent concentration." Bruce raises a brow when Tony's head disappears off screen. He hears shuffling and a moment later a blood bag enters the screen.

"Voila, oh neg, should be done making the dosage in about fifteen minutes. See you then." He says giving him a two-fingered salute.

"Yeah, see you in fifteen, Stark." The screen goes dark. Fifteen minutes. Nine hundred seconds. He pinches the bridge of his nose, taking a shaky breath. He can't go back there, he can't. He is. He looks at Cadence, feels her whispering those words in his ear. His heart thumps uncomfortably in his chest at the thought that maybe this time, this time...It would work. He's intrigued by her ability; enjoys seeing her happy and yearns to keep the fear away. Now, now the girl he dreamed plays in his mind, moving gracefully—mental image implanted into his mind by Natasha's description of her shade—like a ballerina, voice cool, nearly pitying, too sensual, eyes distant, lacking the emotive spark that he likes so much in her. Her lips rolling over the words so simply, almost like a caress, a deadly caress. Two words that clawed their way out of their coffins to wreak havoc on his psyche once again. _Kill, you._ Kill him.

He presses his palms against his temples, shaking his head. _What is this yearning? I don't want that. I help people._ He can't tear himself from it.

Finally three raps sound against the door.

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**So...My sister told me rather animatedly that the last few chapters have been "plot plot plot!" Leave me a review, tell me how I'm doing, they're always useful. :)**

**Chapter 11 coming soon.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Warnings: Drug use.**

**A/N: Here's #11, I'm using two different perspectives for this chapter to portray an important aspect. I don't want to confuse anyone as there is one short part where both perspectives are mixed.**

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_I'm opening drawers; their content is clattering onto the floor. I don't care. I need money. I find a hair tie in the living room and shove my hair into an awful knot. Pieces hang out but it doesn't matter, it's out of the way. My nails have left bloody crescent shaped cuts in my arm. I'm tweaking bad. My hands are shaking so badly that I can't get the cap off the pig in the dining room. A shriek of frustration rips up my throat and I knock it off the shelf instead. It shatters and I fall to my knees with a croon when I see the money inside. Twenty dollars. My cheeks are wet. I grab the paper bills and hold them tightly in my fist. _

_I'm practically staggering my way up to the man's room. The bloody clothes I stripped out of litter the stairs, none of the blood is mine, it's all theirs. My skin is covered in bruises, a morbidly beautiful mosaic, the shape of fists, boots, other weapons. They don't matter. I wrench the cupboard doors opens and claw through the shirts and socks, and underwear. Nothing. I look around the room fast, eyes scanning. The wallet. The man brought the child to the park, left his wallet. My body lurches over the bed grabbing the leather object and dumping the contents onto the pristine duvet. A mewling sound leaves me and I snatch the money. My next thought is that I need clothes._

_The woman is my size. I trifle through her closet and pull out what looks practical. Black tank top. I'm walking through the house again; I need pants. From her empty drawer and laundry baskets I vouch that it's laundry day in this house. I grab the paper bills off the bed and make my way down the stairs. I huff of air escapes me when I see the basket of clothes and overturn it onto the carpet in the family room. I laugh humourlessly when I see the jeans and tug them on without a second thought. I grab a coat out of the closet and shove the bills into the pocket; I do the buttons up with surprising ease. I pick up my bag next to the door and shove my feet into the extra black shoes I have. _

_I look through the bay window, well out of sight, and curse obscenities in my head when I see the man and child returning from the park. I cut through the house and walk at the opposite side of the drive way._

"_Good afternoon!" The man greets, he's bringing the garbage bin back to the side of the house. I don't see the child. _

"_Hello." I put on the friendliest smile and slow my walk. I slip my hand into my bag, fingers brushing over my dagger. _

"_You must be the house sitter for Alice and Ben." He says walking past me and depositing the garbage can. _

"_I am." My accent sounds wrong to me. It's Russian; a pang of pain shoots through me and then hate. Hate, because my _perfect_ career wasn't real, it's like self hate. I still have I can't place it. It's been two years of running. "I'm very sorry, but I am in a—"_

"_Daddy! Daddy!" The child's cry comes from inside the house is my cue to leave._

"_Sorry, my son's calling. See you around." The man says and the child screams for him again. I'm walking away as soon as the man has his back turned, and then I'm running. I make my way to the crowded street; down town is only a ten minute walk from here. The weight in my pocket is enough to keep my calm for that long. _

"_Nadia!" Comes the cheerful cry of Mari from behind the candy counter. _

"_Mari, my usual order." I can't wait anymore; I'm coming apart at the seams; _she's_ bleeding through. She nods, tapping the counter for my pay. I put it on the counter. "I want a room too." It's the first time; I've always had somewhere decent to crash but not today. It bothers me._

"_Bene, I'll call Reggie." Her Italian accent flies into my ears as she speaks to the motel owner across the parking lot. It's a stark contrast from the Cardiff accents I've become used to._

"_Go to the window and he'll give you a key." She puts my order on the counter; I take the large paper bag and smile at her. It's the slightest quirk of my lips. Then my back is to her and I'm trying my hardest not to rush across the bare parking lot. I chose her place for the privacy, only selling to the high-up clients. I walk up to the window and see Reggie for the first time. He's a big muscled man with a hard face. _

"_Coming from Mari's." I say and he nods, sliding a key over the counter._

"_Twenty Four hours." He says. I'm gone before he finishes._

_My hands shake as I try to fit the key in the door. It isn't working, the anticipation is too high. The moment I get in, I'm braced against the door, taking in deep breaths and the slightly musky smell of the motel room. Tiny kitchenette, bathroom, bed. I empty the contents of the paper bad onto my bed for the night. The usual. Hair Brush, Makeup, Kitkat, Two Toothpastes, Bread, Peanut Butter, and a tooth brush. I wrench off the coat. I'm down to only the tank top and underwear before I've processed the thought. I grab both toothpastes and toss away the heavier of the two. I claw it open and a kittenish moan passes my lips when I lay eyes on it. A pristine syringe, with exactly what I need. I brace myself against the wall, and sink into a sitting position. I was _trained_ to self administer everything from painkillers to stimulants to death, this is easy. I push down the on the plunger, my eyes flutter. _Bliss._ I moan, fingers digging onto the dingy carpet, my head tilts back, noises of pleasure leave my mouth, and—_oh it's so perfect_. It's too short a time when a light from the open door has a moan of protest leaving me. _

"_Deadly Spider your web has been breached." Reggie? My eyes are rolling into the back of my skull, I'm going limp. "You know what to do." I feel a needle prick in my neck. _

_Everything goes _**b  
l  
a  
c  
k.**

_Her vision is distorted, but she can see well enough. They've cleaned her up, the black smudged makeup she'd had on is now pristine and sexy. Her hair, previously knotted and unclean, lies in damp waves down to her shoulders. It isn't the right colour, no longer a mousy brown, but platinum blonde. The bathroom lights are harsh and bright. _Women_ with washcloths have bathed her. Her skin tingles as the cooler air dries her. They tell her to stand, she does. She's put into light coloured clothes. A belt is added to her attire, bedazzled with an array of weapons she knows intimately. A beige coat over it. Wedged boots. And__Vsevolod—not Reggie—whispering in her ear._

"_Initiate Black Widow." An electric shock directly to the small of her back._

_She's alone._

_Colours. Blurred Vision. It's day. Civilians move past, faceless, nameless. Feeling nothing but a craving. Sees the sign, a botanical garden, people can enjoy it. People don't; it's a cover up. The word 'empress' and a brightly lit hall opening into a too colourful garden. Wait. Everyone's seated. Skirting the edge. No weapons. Peaceful gathering. Homegrown. Plant an idea. Opens the coat. The familiar weight of a favourite blade. Inside the neck of a man at the back. Blood seeping through her fingers. Craving shot through the roof. More. Three sliced aortas. Seven. There are twenty one in the room. A fine wire. Nearly decapitated. Blood. They panic. Gun shots. Blood spatter. Smeared hand print against the white walls. Laughter. A familiar face. Hazel eyes. Shock in them. Memory. Running. A thrill. A back door. An alley way. Hiding. Night time. Sneaking. Found. Adrenaline. Closed down building. Homeless. More blood. Dripping. Painting the flowered wall paper. Stairs. Dust. Lock the door. Stay in the corner._

"_Natalia!" His voice. Frozen. Unable to move. Tries the knob. Locked. Pitfall, no more adrenaline... Pain. Blood. Hers. Cuts. A graze. Seeping. Mesmerizing. Five shots. Through the door. She's clear. Lurches forward, scrambling away. Protesting wood being kicked. Grab. Fight. Punch. Kick. Scratch. A blow to her jaw. Taste of iron. Pinned._

"_Look at me!" A growl. Eyes open. Seeing. _

"_Kill me!" She spits. Her. Begging. Wet cheeks. Her blood spattered on his face. Concern. _

"_I made my decision already."_

"_Do it then." She shrieks voice altering, accents and languages changing from English, Belgian, Russian, the like; her head spins, she struggles meekly, body exhausted. He keeps his hold on her. _

"_That's not the call I made." Men. In the room. Grab her arms, her legs. She fights._

"_No!" It's feral. "Kill me!" She screams, coughing. Tears streaming. "Hawkeye!" Spat, like a curse. _

_Restrained. Fighting them. I'm fighting my restraints. Her head pounds, she aches all over. I'm screaming obscenities in multiple languages. There's no one in this room. Pain. Screaming. I'm screaming._

Natasha wakes up to her own hoarse scream. Sweat drenched and shaking she throws her legs over the side of the bed and puts her head between her knees to calm down. Her cheeks are wet and she can't reign in the tears. She gets up turning on the bathroom light. Her doesn't stifle her hoarse gasp, sees the short red tresses and nearly sinks to the floor in relief. Pale, grey. She looks at her arms. A sob escapes Natasha and she strips out of her clothes, turning on the shower. It's freezing. That's what she needs. Takes the soap and coarse cloth and scrubs. _It's in your head._ She tells herself, the track marks aren't there. Her skin is red and raw with tiny speckles of blood seeping through by the time she no longer imagines the fateful things are there. She stands shivering under the freezing spray until she's numb. She lets the towel rub her raw skin as she dries off. Cream on her skin, enough sting to keep her sane. A loose long sleeved top and pants.

She leaves her room and moves in to the dimly lit hall, still shaking. JARVIS knows not to let the elevator sound for her at this hour. The doors slide open with a whoosh and soon she's traveling up to his floor. Before she can even raise her fist to knock Clint's door opens. He's got her in a tight embrace.

"Jesus, Natasha you're freezing." He mutters into her hair, moves them inside his room to warm her up.

"I needed to take a self identifying shower." She says, trying to meld herself into him as much as possible.

"Which was it?"

"England." She grips his shirt, breathing him in. "All of it. My awareness. Depersonalization. Everything." She shudders. He leads them over to his couch and pulls her onto his lap, wrapping a blanket over the side of her that isn't pressed to him. Their memories of that occasion are so different. His are clear, unhindered by psychotropic drugs. Hers, broken, hollow, a damaged tape.

"I thought it would stay away longer." She whispers, shivers decreasing.

"Two months." He says, familiar with the concept.

"Six, seven months, at the least is the norm." She replies, her hand fists in his shirt, her head is propped up in the crook of his neck.

"You didn't hurt yourself too badly?" He asks, careful with her as usual, as they always are with the other after these episodes. She shakes her head.

"I put cream on." She says, he doesn't need more information than that, he knows exactly what she means. They fall into a silence only they can be comfortable in. She's exhausted, nearly to the point that he can feel it radiating off of her. She doesn't close her eyes. Clint feels her blinking against his neck. After a while he feels a smile grow on her face.

"You got the movies." Her tone is fond, she doesn't move. Clint smiles, she's spotted the Pixar movies on the side table.

"Yeah. Pixar films." Feels her smile a little more warmly. She sits up and looks at him.

"Want to watch some?" She asks. Just as he's about to agree the tablet in the side table starts buzzing. They both sigh. Clint pulls out the tablet and activates the audio call.

"Barton here." He answers. Bruce's face appears on the screen.

"_Cadence is awake. She's displaying an ability I'm sure you and Natasha would like to see." _He says, and behind him the two assassins can see the brunette going over some simple exercises with Tony.

"Alright, I'll let Natasha know." Clint says and Bruce nods, aware that Clint can see him.

"_See you in a few." _Bruce closes the call.

"Mystery girl has something to show us." Natasha says, looking more like herself. Clint nods.

"Yeah, we should get down there." He says. "But we'll watch those movies soon." He promises. She smiles leaning forward and pressing an easy kiss to his mouth. She lingers there a moment before breaking it.

"It's a date then." She agrees, and lets him up. Outwardly Natasha is completely herself again, but as she and Clint wake their way to Cadence's room his hand falls to the small of her back. The slight contact is an outlet and is enough to assuage her busy thoughts and allows her to focus on the present

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**I hope you enjoyed. Chapter 12 should be around shortly. Drop me a review, please, they help me improve and I love to know what your reading experience is. :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: So sorry for the wait, I've been babysitting all week. This one's a bit longer than the last so I hope that makes up for it.**

**Additionally, the chapters about Natasha and Clint are important to the story line, if anyone was wondering.**

**Enjoy :)**

* * *

Tony's caffeine high is at a low when he comes up to Cadence's room. He knocks eyeing the red liquid with hopefulness. Bruce opens the door with a tired smile as a greeting.

"Gotten any sleep?" Tony asks, Bruce shakes his head.

"Dozed off a little earlier." He admits, Tony chuckles handing the other scientist the blood bag.

"Great." He says to himself and makes his way over to Cadence's bedside, hooking the bag onto the stand and quickly hooking another IV onto Cadence. The blood easily flows down the plastic tube. Bruce turns back to Tony and takes the seat opposite him.

"You look like shit." Tony says. Mirth coats Bruce's smirk.

"So do you." He counters, his teasing is light. He runs a hand through his hair and sighs.

"Does anyone on this team sleep?" Tony asks, exasperation failing. Bruce shrugs.

"Natasha and Clint do, most nights." He says.

"Cap, too, sometimes." Tony adds. Bruce nods, he looks distracted.

"What's bothering you?" Tony asks, Bruce looks at him, raising a brow.

"You look...morbidly contemplative." Tony attempts, Bruce shakes his head with a laugh.

"Morbidly contemplative." He attests nodding. "This isn't a particularly pleasant ordeal." He looks at Tony pointedly. The man shrugs.

"It's more than that. Something's bugging you—did Romanov get to you?" Tony crosses his arms in front of his chest.

"Get to me?" Bruce asks doubtfully.

"I saw what she found out. They're still trying to find the names of the children in the Russian trial, but odds are Cadence was in that one. She told you about all of it, didn't she? Well, whatever she said must have rubbed something raw, to make you look so gloomy." Bruce sighs pinching the bridge of his nose.

"She told me about how she'd been put under shades." He acknowledges. "How the people in the Ops Program made her believe she was someone else."

"You're thinking that Cadence is under a shade, then?" Tony's tone is understanding, the same thing had been running through his mind.

"It's a possibility. Not one I'm fond of, considering her abilities, but we have to consider a way..." he trails off, with another sigh.

"A way to incapacitate her." Tony finishes. Bruce nods.

"Some homework for you then." He says looking sidelong at Tony.

"Distractions are a good thing." Tony says.

"Yeah." Bruce agrees. Cadence's heart monitor starts beeping. Both men look up at her on the bed. A groan of protest escapes her. She sits up swaying slightly, opening her eyes. She's dizzy like she's overexerted herself. She puts her hand down to brace her. She wrenches her hand back like she's been burnt.

"What is going on?" She croaks, sucking in quick breaths.

"Cadence, what's the matter?" Bruce asks, she turns her head toward the sound of his voice; his heart does a painful thump when he sees her bloody eyes flitting around uselessly.

"I still can't see—what the hell did you give me?" Despite the hoarseness of her voice, her tone is sharp and biting. "I feel like I'm on overdrive." She gasps.

"We gave you some of the reproduced drug from your system; it's called Cortexlimin." Tony says and her head swings around, following his voice.

"Why would you do that?" Her tone is resentful and shocked; she brings her hands up, digging her nails into her scalp, but jerks them away just as quickly. "That stuff made me a freak." Her voice trembles and breaks, angry murky tears drip down her cheeks. Bruce quickly crosses over to her and sits on the edge of her bed, reaching out to her.

"Cadence you're not a—" A squeak escapes her the moment his hand touches hers. She jerks her hand back, yelping at the pull of the IV in her arm. Bruce stays very still, evaluating her current state. Everything is quiet for a moment, and then she reaches her hand out again slowly, searching for Bruce's hand. She's been surprised enough to forget her anger. She touches his hand and her breath catches. She blinks a couple times, testing. She removes her hand. She replaces it. If Tony were to describe her expression it would be a mixture between intrigue and 'what the fuck?'

"Care to share your findings, Princess?" She glowers in his general direction.

"I can see Bruce." She says, fingers tightening around Bruce's hand. She gets a distant look on her face. Bruce counts twelve heartbeats before she frowns.

"I still can't fix me." She remarks, with a hint of panic in her voice. She looks at Bruce, sees the flash of concern on his face, the intrigue.

"What do you mean?" Tony asks.

"My telekinesis still isn't working." She exclaims with a growl, trying harder. She flinches from a flash of pain.

"Don't overdo it." Tony warns, she scowls again, and then takes a deep breath, closing her eyes.

"What happened?" She asks, "It felt like my brain was being smashes in and wanted to explode all at once." She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear uncertainly.

"I told you while you were still groggy; another member of the Avengers came for a visit." Bruce starts.

"Thor, the God of Thunder. The Battle of Manhattan was because of his adoptive brother. He's sort of an alien." Tony finishes, and Cadence raises a brow. She can't see Tony's amused smirk.

"Sort of an alien?" She asks dubiously.

"He looks human, but he speaks Shakespearian, and wears battle armour and he can control thunder storms." Tony explains.

"His brainwaves project more powerfully than humans' do." Bruce adds. "The big oaf is really torn up about hurting you." He smiles sadly.

"We didn't know about his brainwaves until after..." Tony says. "But it explains why some people get headaches around him." Cadence looks uncertain of what she should say.

"He wants to meet you, though. Romanov is going to set up a video call at some point in the near future to get up to date on Loki's—the Demi-God responsible for the attack—trial on their...planet." Tony gets up and crosses over to Cadence's bed taking a seat himself.

"I wouldn't mind meeting him. But I'd prefer to when I can see." She says surely. Bruce chuckles.

"That's not a problem Cadence." He assures. On cue her stomach growls.

"You sound hungry." Tony says, tone lightening a bit.

"I am." She admits and Tony stands.

"I'll get us all some food then. Early breakfast." He says, making his way over to the door.

"That sounds really good." Cadence agrees. Tony's smile doesn't reach his eyes.

"I'll be back." He says, and the door closes behind him.

"Can you describe what you're seeing?" Bruce asks, watching Cadence's face.

"I...I can _see_ you when I'm touching you." She starts letting go of his hand slowly. "With my hands." She frowns slightly. "Otherwise I'm totally blind..."

"Alright." Bruce says. She takes his hand again. "Hyper-sensitized nerve clusters?" He tries. Cadence laughs.

"That sounds good." She agrees. "Is, Thor okay? Stark said he was torn up about hurting me?" She doesn't want anyone to feel unnecessarily responsible. Although that want is futile. Bruce smiles fondly at the thought of what Barton had messaged him.

"He was being extra careful about being quiet. He didn't quite understand that it was his brain waves that needed quieting and not necessarily him." Cadence smiles in response.

"That's sweet. I really would like to meet him at some point...without the head trauma." Her expression is so earnest. His heart thumps painfully at the thought that this sincerity might not be real.

"I think he'd really like that." Bruce says. "He went to see a friend of his. From when he first came to Earth, he wants to be kept up to date on your recovery."

"I'm okay, I don't blame him." She says. She smiles suddenly.

"What is it?" Bruce asks, finding it hard not to match her smile.

"I can still perceive brainwaves." She says, closing her eyes. She looks a little sheepish, she opens her eyes.

"Natasha's awake and so is Clint." Cadence says. "They're just sort of sleeping together, just sleeping." She muses at that, looking as if she'd enjoy sharing that with someone. Bruce smiles too, envies the trust held between the two assassins for himself.

"_Dr. Banner, Mr. Stark is arriving with the breakfast."_ JARVIS says and Cadence lightens.

"I'm still not used to that." She says.

"_All in due time, Miss Holland." _JARVIS says and Bruce gets up to open the door for Tony. The self-proclaimed genius looks like a proper waiter as he rolls in a cart with various breakfast foods on it.

"What do you want? There's scrambled eggs, toast, fruit, berries, pop tarts, crepes...?"

"Eggs." Cadence groans. "Oh I'd like some of those, but it would be tedious trying to eat them...so a crepe, and whatever fruit you've got." Bruce serves Cadence and himself and puts her plate on a tray Tony hands him. He brings it over to her and places it over her lap. She holds the tray with a concentrated expression on her face, slowly searching for the plate, with a satisfied look she tears the crepe and pops a piece into her mouth.

"_Mmm._" She compliments, ripping off another piece in quick succession.

"How did you make this so fast?" Bruce asks through a forkful of eggs. Tony grins.

"I'd love to say that I have mad cooking skills, but Pepper has jet lag and can't sleep either, so she made breakfast, since none of us sleep very much." Tony shrugs, breaking off a piece of warm pop tart and taking a bite.

"Strawberry." Cadence says, holding up the red berry between her thumb and index finger. She pops it into her mouth. "Melon ball." She says, blocking her mouth with her other hand while holding up some cantaloupe.

"Yep." Tony pipes, and Cadence rolls her eyes playfully. The three finish eating in silence. Bruce takes Cadence's plate away and Tony walks over to her. She slides her legs off the side of her bed. He sits next to her.

"How's your hearing?" He asks.

"Fine." She says, and Tony snaps his fingers on her left side, she turns slightly, following the sound. He does the same on her right.

"Anything out of the ordinary besides the...touchy see-y thing?" Tony makes a face, both Cadence and Bruce laughs.

"Very eloquent of you, Stark." Cadence says with a grin. "The only other thing I can think of is that, I'm very aware of my injuries." She focuses for a moment. "It's not pain, necessarily, but I know there's an IV in my arm, and I still feel the bruises I got when I did that demonstration, my face..." Bruce winces when she mentions her face, still angrily discoloured.

"I'm going to let Clint know you're up." Bruce says, stepping over to his tablet.

"Okay." Cadence replies.

"Okay, so sensory perception, is in overdrive." Tony concludes, poking her leg, she jumps a bit.

"Hey!" She swats him away, and he gets in a well aimed poke to her side. She laughs; holding her hands out, Tony puts a hand over hers like a high five. She blinks a few times as he comes into view.

"Hello there, Mr. Stark." She says, in mock seriousness. He grins. "You look rather dishevelled." She says losing some of the teasing tone.

"My devilish looks take precision to accomplish." He says haughtily, she makes a face.

"Barton and Natasha should be down in a few minutes." Bruce says coming over to the duo. Cadence reaches out with her other hand and finds Bruce's blinking as he too comes into focus.

"That's interesting." She says.

"What is?" Tony asks.

"I can see me. And I can see you two, but nothing else, like you're suspended." She shrugs. A knock at the door has her following the sound. Tony disappears from sight. He opens the door for the two assassins, and doesn't miss the way Clint's hand drops from the small of Romanov's back.

"Good to see you up Cadence." Clint greets, Natasha walks over to the cart and pours herself a coffee.

"I wish I could say the same." She replies, Clint frowns and Natasha raises a brow as she sips her hot beverage.

"She can't see." Bruce provides and the pair nods.

"So what's the ability she's displaying?" Natasha asks, moving to stand back next to Clint.

"My eyes aren't working. But when I touch someone of something I can _see_ it, like a scanned three dee image." Cadence explains, Natasha nods.

"What about your telekinesis?" Natasha shifts her weight onto her left foot.

"Currently it isn't working. I've been given some of the...Cortexlimine?"

"Cortexlimin." Tony supplies.

"Cortexlimin." Cadence corrects herself, expression portraying her distaste of that choice. Natasha mirrors the expression.

"Was that a good idea, Doc?" She says looking over at Banner. Clint idly starts serving himself some food from the cart.

"It's a ten percent concentration, and it's already helping her recover." Bruce defends.

"The drug eliminated the sedative and provided her a substitute for seeing." Tony adds nonchalantly. Natasha regards him incredulously.

"You weren't concerned that it would harm her further?" Clint asks through a mouthful of toast. Natasha gives him a disbelieving look.

"I didn't have any concerns." Bruce says. Natasha doesn't look appeased but she doesn't say anything.

"She been brought up to speed?" Clint asks, Bruce, Tony, and Cadence all nod.

"Good." He says. "Has she suffered any significant trauma?"

"There were symptoms of a severe concussion and some swelling but I think that's been reduced by the Cortexlimin." He frowns. "Damn."

"What?" All of them ask in unison, in different tones of inquiry.

"I didn't realize how fast it worked. That must be what that 'overdrive' was, Cadence." Bruce explains.

"How fast are we talking, Banner?" Natasha asks tightly.

"Minutes." Bruce answers with a touch of marvel in his tone as he voices the realization.

"Not sure if that's good or bad." Natasha runs a hand through her hair.

"It's good." Tony says.

"That's debatable." Natasha counters.

"Oh really?" Tony asks, raising a brow at her.

"Yes." She replies.

"Let's play nicely, please, it's too early to argue." Clint holds up a hand. Natasha sighs. Tony rolls his eyes.

"If anybody cares, I'm in the neutral." Cadence says with a shrug. Bruce laughs silently to himself.

"I've got work to do." Natasha says. "Cadence, I'm glad you're recovering." She walks swiftly to the door.

"I doubt sleep is much of an option anymore." Clint says. "I'm going to the gym." He follows Natasha.

"Bye.." Cadence calls after them. Tony sighs.

"Wonderful gathering." He mutters sarcastically, meeting Bruce's eye.

"I'm going to go assuage the Black Widow's concerns." He says, a touch of sarcasm still present in his tone. "See yah later, Princess." He says, opening the door. Cadence rolls her eyes, but she's smiling.

"Yeah, see you later, Stark." She says and he closes the door. Bruce chuckles.

"Cadence, what are we going to do with you?" He asks with fondness in his voice. In all honesty, he doesn't know what they're going to do. He's scared, for her and even himself. He doesn't like it, the sense of dread forming in the back of his mind.

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**Reviews are always welcome. I have an idea as to what's happening next chapter so your wait shouldn't be too long. Thanks for reading :)**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait, I just got really demotivated and low, and distracted. Thank you for putting up with me. Some chapters can be anticlimactic but your reviews are what keep me going (I'll do my best to keep things plotty). ****I hope you like this chapter. :)**

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Clint doesn't have a goal workout planned in his mind when he arrives at the double doors, so like every other time he's pretending nothing's bothering him, he runs. On and angle as fast as he can. He's got the rhythmic sound of his shoes against the treadmill in his ears and can feels the freeing pull of his ribcage against his skin as he breathes hard. It's almost as centering as fixing on a target; getting ready to fire. His mind isn't clear though, not now. He's distracted. There's a mission. He could have laughed when it had first been presented to him, but no, it's important. He doesn't know if the fact that it's home ground is better or worse. He has to go and he doesn't like it, he doesn't want to leave the Tower right now; not while they're trying to find out more about Cadence and the Russian drug trial.

He senses her presence more than actually hears her. He audibly sighs, and she catches is even though he's breathing hard. "Four minutes, Barton. What's on your mind?" Natasha's up in a net, resting casually with a tablet in her hand. He's one of the only people who can really tell when she's concerned. He slows the treadmill and walks off his run for a good long three minutes before moving over to the pull up bar and starting on those. They're easy. "I have a mission." He says, exhaling on descent. He thinks he hears Natasha scoff. "Bullshit." Turns out she did. "That's what I said." He keeps pulling up even as they talk. "Doesn't Fury understand that we all need to be here in case Cadence goes rogue?" She says disbelievingly, tapping her tablet again. "That's not what I meant." He says.

She slinks down from the net without a sound crossing her arms in front of her chest. "It's nearby." He says, ignoring her stance. This seems to assuage her a bit. "How near are you talking, Barton?" They never like going on separate missions, they work so much better as a team. "A few hours." He replies, Fury wasn't putting them both on it because he thinks Romanov is doing exceptional work on home turf with the _Beacon. _He'd had to roll his eyes at that; Agent Hill had. He had made it clear that it hadn't been him who had dubbed Cadence "the Beacon", but it did fit, in a 'tilt your head to the side to get it' kind of way. "I'm tracking a Doctor that specializes in human neurological and bodily enhancements, he's been doing illegal human trials. Left a small town in the middle of nowhere terribly disfigured." The irony in his voice isn't missed.

Natasha frowns deeply. "That," she sighs covering her face with her hand, "sounds like it could be related to our mess here." She doesn't need to see him to know he's nodding. "That's what I thought when I read the file. There are holes, alibis that aren't corroborated, stories that haven't been cross checked." He stops doing pull ups altogether, and just looks at her. "He's my target. Other Agents are taking care of the sub groups." He makes a fist, bringing his arm behind his head in a stretch. Natasha drops her hand, meeting his gaze. "Could he be nearby because he's trying to track Cadence down?" She's got her game face on already and it makes Clint smile. "It's a possibility; agents on the helicarrier are working out some of his associates and past projects." Natasha nods. "I want to be in the loop, okay?" Clint nods. He can't deny he's surprised when an instant later she's hugging him impulsively. He brings his arms around her waist, hugging her back. "Be safe, okay?" She says quietly. "Of course." He assures, she pulls back. "You know I have a bad feeling about this whole thing." She emphasizes not braking eye contact with him. "I know. I shouldn't be more than a week." With that she smiles, although it doesn't reach her eyes, it light her face up a bit. "I'll help you pack."

_**1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21-34**_

"I have never gotten drunk before." Steve says innocently, verging on exasperation. Cadence laughs from her spot on the bed. "That's such a wasted experience." She snorts when she realizes her bad pun. "So you can't get drunk, and you didn't before?" She wants to understand perfectly. "Nope, metabolism to really high, and before everyone thought I was under-aged." She gets a thoughtful look on her face. "Hm," she muses, "okay, first kiss then, what was her name?" She can't see the Captain, but she can tell he's sitting a few feet away, leaning against the wall. She gets a disconcerting wave of sadness from his after she asks that. "You don't have to answer that." She says, he waves his hand, the shift in the air tells her. "Her name was Peggy." He says, a bit distantly, but brightens a moment later. "What about you?" Cadence thinks a minute. "Florence Albin, when I was fifteen." She says smirk pulling at her lips. Steve frowns. "Were you drunk?" He asks. She shakes her head. "No, totally sober; Flow was the sexiest actor in my drama class and we had to do a stage kiss for a play. So one day while we were running lines she kissed me so it wouldn't be awkward at rehearsals." She shrugs. "Great kisser."

He tries not to let the contextual homophobia get the better of him. Tony had brought him up to date on a lot of things about the twenty first century and same sex couples were one of those things. He didn't quite get it, but he supposes his opinion of bullies can be reworded to marriage and love; "I don't hate anyone. Love is love. No matter whom it's between." That, he thinks, can be applied to same sex relationships. But it doesn't make him feel any less uncomfortable when people talk about it, or if he sees it on the street or TV. Cadence senses his discomfort. "But Ashton Peirce, was my first boyfriend." She offers, hoping to assuage the man pulled out of time. It does, and he asks her another question. "A story you've been told from your childhood." She bites on her lip, and thinks a minute. "We had some pretty wicked winters in Montreal." She starts, smiling at the memory of her grandma telling her this. "One day in the middle of a snow storm, it was time to leave play group, and I wouldn't put my snow suit on. I pulled a fit and everything, so my mum just let me walk out of the building in my regular clothes, and let me get cold."

Steve and Cadence both turn suddenly when a high pitched buzzing noise sounds from the door way. Cadence sits up, facing the sounds with a curious expression on her face. "What's that—" She gets a surprised look on her face and falls onto the bed limply. Steve's up in an instant, glaring at Tony with his new gadget. "What the Hell, Tony?" He says, turning to Cadence, she's got a sort of grimace on her face. "What do you feel, Cady?" Stark asks, entering the room a bit. "Uhm, I don't feel anything, I can't move." Even then she's not scared, she can move her face, it's everything beyond that that isn't responding. Tony shuts off his gadget with a light curse, and feeling returns to Cadence's limbs. "What were you trying to do?" She asks, exasperated, this is the third time he's been in here with some thing he's built. The first two had made her see bright blue in the inside of her eye ball, it was unpleasant and disorienting; and the other had made her tongue complete jelly for ten minutes. The mishaps had been a significant amount of hours apart but they were, nonetheless, getting a bit out of hand. "I thought it would work this time." He grumbles, turning and leaving the way he came.

"That's what you said last time." She calls after him. Tony makes his way back to his lab, already fiddling with the device in his hands. Bruce is digging through the supplies cupboard when he gets back in. He raises a brow at the man, but doesn't otherwise say anything. "Your calculations are off." Bruce says, head inside the cupboard. "Oh?" Says tony, pulling up the volumetric display and moving parts this way and that, he tosses the device onto the table and it clatters with other tools. "Hmm, what are you working on anyway; a way to subdue Thor's brain waves; or a way to subdue Cadence?" The way he says it shows how he doesn't like that idea. "Second one." Tony says, though he's already ensconced in his work. "One thing at a time." Bruce sighs, finding what he came for and heading toward the door. "Banner." He turns back, Tony's holding his hand out. Bruce walks over to him and lets the genius drop two earrings into his hand. "Already finished the first one." Bruce pinches one of them between his index finger and thumb. "Nanotech." Tony explains, practically reading his mind. "Thor's brain waves won't bother her while she's wearing those."

Bruce raises a brow at Tony, and he finally acknowledges him by meeting his gaze. "Yes, yes, I know; 'how did you know she has an industrial piercing and a cartilage piercing.' JARVIS told me." Bruce shakes his head, handing the earrings back to Tony. "She won't be hurt, will she?" He asks, referring to the device Stark's working on. The man shakes his head. "It'll only knock her out." He assures. "Alright." Bruce leaves the lab and makes his way back to his. While passing the parking garage, he sees Natasha emerge. She lightens a bit when she sees him. "Any head way, Doctor Banner?" She falls into step with him. "Plenty," he says, looking back at the door. "Barton has a mission." Natasha answers his silent question. "Now?" Bruce voices sceptically. Natasha nods. "My thoughts exactly. Would you like me to fill you in?" They reach his lab and he nods. They enter and she starts to tell him of the potentially new light shed on their situation. When she finishes, his expression is grave. "So this Doctor could be involved, and that's why he's in the US?" He doesn't like it, Cadence had said she was being followed after all. "I'm afraid do, Doc." But she isn't. She's curious, morbidly so, and wishes she didn't feel so damn vulnerable with this girl around.

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**Thanks for reading. Reviews are always welcomed. :)**


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